Downpour
by EllaoftheOpera
Summary: The Avengers are investigating an abandoned Hydra base on the German border. Or at least, they thought it was abandoned... and they had no idea the surprise they'd find inside. Eventual Peter Parker/OC, but not for a long while. Rated T for eventual violence and potentially triggering plot themes. Warnings posted inside. No swearing or sexual content. AU-ish.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey guys! I thought this story up a few days ago and I've already got the first three chapters written. You should know that in this story, Pietro never died, and I've also omitted Clint's secret family. This story doesn't really follow any specific story arc or movie plot. Bucky is in it too, and he's not the psycho Winter Soldier assassin, he's just... Bucky. Eventually, I'm going to bring Spiderman and his friends into this too, but not for a while. Also, this part of the story takes place a few years ago in 2016. The next part takes place a few years after. I hope you guys like it! Please review and tell me what you think! Love, EllaoftheOpera**

 _"Okay everyone, listen up."_ Cap's voice could be heard coming through Pietro's comlink.

"Why must we listen standing up? Can we not listen upside down if we want to?" Pietro voiced his opinion with a smirk.

An audible sigh was heard on the other end. Clint spoke up. _"Kid, seriously, as much as I love your strange sense of humor, now is not the time."_

 _"Agreed."_ Tony chimed in. _"We need to focus on the mission at hand. You were saying, Cap?"_

 _"I'm sorry,"_ Natasha's voice cut through, _"but did Tony Stark, king of distractions and bad humor, just agree to focus and not crack jokes?"_ You could practically hear her smirking.

 _"You know what, Romanoff-"_

 _"Guys, seriously. Now really isn't the time."_ Sam's voice was nearly drowned out by the sound of the wind rushing by him. _"Man, is it ever cold, though! Why can't Hydra ever build their bases someplace warm? Just imagine it: A Hydra base on the beach in Cancun."_

Steve, Tony, Clint, Natasha, Wanda, Pietro, Sam, and Bucky were on a mission investigating an abandoned Hydra facility near the German border. At least, they thought it was abandoned. SHIELD had been watching it for awhile and had recently found reason to believe Hydra was still using it. Currently, the Avengers were spread out over several different vantage points, casing the place.

 _"Why didn't you guys come here before, back when you were busting up the rest of the Hydra bases?"_ Asked Bucky.

 _"This one wasn't on our radar back then, Buck. And even when we did notice it, it didn't look like anyone was home."_ Cap answered.

Pietro was running around the building, looking for possible points of entry. "Hey you guys," he spoke, "I think I found a way inside." He was looking at a wall with a barely there crack in the shape of a door. "It looks like it might be a door but I'm not sure."

 _"What do you mean you aren't sure? Is it a door or not?"_ Tony asked.

Pietro ran his fingers along the crack until he found a small groove near the ground. He pushed his fingers into the groove and heard a clicking noise.

"Yeah, it's a door," he said, as he watched the wall slide backward and out of sight.

 _"Pietro, wait for the rest of us before you go inside. It's not wise to go alone."_ Wanda's calming voice came over the comlink.

 _"Yeah Speedy Gonzales, don't jump the gun without us."_ Tony chimed in.

"What is Speedy Gonzales?" Pietro asked, confused.

 _"You mean to tell me you've never seen Looney Tunes?"_ Tony sounded incredulous. _"Everybody has seen Looney Tunes!"_

 _"I've never even heard of that show,"_ Wanda spoke up.

 _"I've never seen that show either. They didn't exactly have cartoons where I grew up,"_ said Natasha.

 _"I remember that show! Isn't that the one with the little yellow bird and the bunny that's always chomping carrots?"_ Bucky asked excitedly.

Tony sighed. _"So you're telling me that you guys haven't seen Looney Tunes but Elsa over here has? That does it. We're having a cartoon marathon after this mission."_

"You guys," Pietro interrupted, "I'm getting kind of impatient over here." Pietro's foot was tapping on the ground so fast it was nothing but a blur.

 _"I'm almost there, Pietro. Please stay put."_ Wanda said.

But Pietro was already inside.

"Wanda, this place is almost exactly the same as the facility we were kept in!" he whispered urgently.

 _"Pietro, I thought we agreed you were supposed to wait for the rest of us before going in,"_ Cap said sternly.

"I'm not going to go looking for trouble! I just wanted to take a peek inside." Pietro heard footsteps behind him and turned to see his twin sister with Bucky in tow.

"Pietro!" she whisper-yelled. "You were supposed to wait outside."

He grinned. "You know how impatient I am, Wanda. You should never have put this responsibility on me."

Bucky huffed. "Enough bickering, you two. Cap gave us the green light to scout ahead. Let's go. And Pietro," he pointed at Pietro with a metal finger, "so help me if I hear one bad joke come out of your mouth-"

Pietro sped off before he heard the rest of that sentence. He had a pretty good idea of how it ended anyway.

He found himself wandering down a hallway that was eerily familiar. There were small cells lining the walls, all of which were empty. He shuddered.

"Wanda, I think this place is another human experimentation base," he said uneasily. "They have cells lining the walls just like where we were kept. They all seem to be empty though."

 _"Thank goodness,"_ she replied. _"Nobody should have to go through what we did."_

Suddenly, sounds of combat flooded through the comlinks.

 _"Okay, so maybe this base isn't as abandoned as we thought,"_ Tony grunted. Pietro could hear the sound of his repulsors firing. _"There's gotta be at least a hundred guys here."_

 _"They knew we were coming,"_ Cap called out. _"They wanted us to come!"_

 _"Hey, kid, where did you run off to? We could use a hand!"_ Clint yelled over the commotion.

"I'm on my way!"

Pietro was about to head back outside and join the fight when something caught his eye. He turned toward the cell closest to him. It was exactly the same as all the other cells, with one exception: the blankets on the cot were moving. With a newfound sense of urgency, Pietro opened the cell door and rushed over to the cot.

There, buried under a mound of blankets, was a girl, sound asleep. She couldn't be more than 14. She looked underweight. She was much too skinny for it to be healthy. Her long brown hair looked rather dull and was tangled up in knots like she hadn't brushed it for days. Pietro watched as her chest rose and fell, relieved that she was alive and breathing. He pressed a finger to her wrist, checking for a pulse. It was faint, but it was there. He gently shook her shoulder in an attempt to wake her and was alarmed when she didn't stir.

 _"Pietro, where are you? Are you okay?"_ Pietro could hear the panic in Wanda's voice.

"You guys, I found someone, a girl, in the holding cells. She's breathing, but her pulse is weak. I can't get her to wake up! What do I do?" He asked, panicky.

 _"Lift her eyelids and look at her pupils."_ Bucky directed. _"Tell me what size they are."_

Pietro did as he was told and gently lifted her eyelids. Her pupils were enlarged, alarmingly so.

"Her pupils are very big. I can barely see the colored part of her eye."

 _"In that case, she's most likely been drugged. Stay where you are and keep her safe. I'll come and find you both when this is all over."_

"Alright," Pietro replied, his voice shaky. He sat down on the floor of the cell next to the cot and ran his fingers through his silvery hair, lost in thought. He was hoping, desperately hoping, that the girl sleeping less than 2 feet away from him was not one of Hydra's human experiments. He wouldn't wish that pain on anyone, especially not this young girl. Although, there was a way to check. Pietro rolled up the sleeve on his right arm, revealing hundreds of little red dots on the inside of his elbow, scars from the many times they had drawn his blood. Pietro rose to his knees and gently grasped the young girl's right arm, sliding up the sleeve of the grey long sleeve shirt she wore. Sure enough, there were hundreds of red dots on her arm as well.

Pietro had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach as he looked at the red dots. This young girl had been put through the exact same thing he had. Had she even had a choice in the matter? He doubted it.

 _"Hey Pietro, I think I found the records room in this joint,"_ Sam remarked over the coms. _"There's a bunch of folders labeled as 'Patient Files'. Think that girl you found could be one of their experiments?"_

"She is an experiment," Pietro growled. "She has the same marks on her arm as Wanda and me."

 _"Can you find anything that would tell me which patient she is? A name, a number?"_

Pietro poked his head out of the cell and looked up.

"She is in cell number 13. That's all I've got."

 _"I think I'm gonna take a look around in here, do some digging. Are you guys okay to keep going without me?"_

 _"Go ahead Sam, we've got it covered,"_ Steve answered.

 _"How are you holding up, Pietro?"_ Bucky asked. _"We've managed to take care of the initial onslaught of agents, but there could be any number of them heading your way at any time."_

"I'm alright. Don't worry about me. I won't leave."

Pietro sat with his thoughts. What would happen to this girl when they took her back with them? Would SHIELD take her? Would he ever see her again? Pietro had yet to even figure out her name and he already felt a connection to her. Not in a romantic way; more like a big brother. He wondered if he could convince the Avengers to let her stay in the compound with them.

Because one thing was for sure: Pietro was going to make sure that Hydra never hurt this girl again.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Here is chapter 2, as promised. Enjoy!**

Though it only seemed like a few minutes, it was almost an hour before Pietro heard footsteps running down the hall. He immediately tensed, jumping soundlessly to his feet.

"Pietro?" Bucky's voice echoed down the hall.

Pietro relaxed. "I'm in here!" he called out.

Bucky ran down the hall to the cell where Pietro was located. He completely bypassed him and went straight over to the cot where the girl was still sound asleep, having not moved a muscle. He hesitated for a moment, and Pietro saw something flash through his eyes. It was if seeing her stirred a memory, but the look was gone as fast as it came. Bucky felt her pulse and lifted her eyelids, just as Pietro had done, before turning to look at him.

"She's definitely been drugged. Has she moved at all while you were here?"

Pietro shook his head. "Not a muscle. How do you know how to do all of this anyway?"

Bucky was quiet. "Not all the skills I've acquired over the years involve violence and death." He shook his head, clearing himself of the memories that were threatening to overtake him.

"Everyone's waiting for us back at the Quinjet. Sam grabbed as many patient files as he could carry so we could try and find the one for her." He scowled. "This base has been in operation for years. Who knows how many hundreds of human experiments were carried out here." He gestured over toward the girl. "Do you think you can carry her?"

Pietro nodded. He picked her up, blanket and all, and held her bridal style. Even with her thick blanket, she barely weighed anything. He followed Bucky out of the cell, walking the entire way back to the Quinjet. He didn't dare use his powers. He was too afraid of hurting her.

When they made it outside, Pietro drew the blanket closer to the girl, trying to protect her from the freezing temperatures. He walked around the few bodies left scattered around on the ground (SHIELD would take care of them) and up the ramp, entering the Quinjet.

The Avengers looked exhausted. Hawkeye had a nasty cut above his eye, and Natasha was favoring her right leg. Steve and Tony didn't look much better. Wanda seemed to be alright, though she looked drained. And Sam was practically buried under a mountain of file folders.

"Finally," Tony sighed in relief. "Frosty and Roadrunner are back."

"Who is Roadrunner?" Pietro asked confused.

Tony groaned, hanging his head. Natasha put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "Nobody understands my references..." he mumbled.

Pietro just shook his head and moved toward the back of the Quinjet, where a small cot was set up for medical purposes. He gently laid the girl down on the cot and moved to cover her more fully with her blanket. After brushing the hair out of her face, he lowered himself to the ground, sitting next to her.

A few minutes later, the Quinjet was in the air.

Sam sat down on the ground next to Pietro and handed him a large stack of file folders.

"I sorted through most of them. The amount of test subjects they've used is sickening." He shuddered involuntarily before continuing. "I took out the ones for male patients. These are the files for the female patients. Flip through them and see if you can find hers." He jabbed his thumb toward the girl.

Pietro nodded. It wasn't like he had much else to occupy his time for the next few hours. He picked up the first file in the stack and began to read.

ooOOoo

She was lost, lying still in a cloud of fog. All was quiet. And then, voices.

 _I found someone… breathing… wake up…_

 _She is an experiment… I won't leave…_

 _She's definitely been drugged… Do you think you can carry her?..._

Then she was floating, moving, wrapped in something soft and warm. She felt safe, secure. Someone was holding her. Then the arms around her left, and she was someplace new. She was somewhere cold and rather loud. Then, there were new voices.

 _Nobody understands my references…_

 _I sorted through most of them… see if you can find hers…_

Then everything was quiet again.

ooOOoo

Pietro was reading through his 20th patient file when he heard it. A soft, rustling noise. Ever so slowly, he raised his head so that he was at eye level with the cot.

The girl was looking back at him, her deep brown eyes still heavy-lidded. She looked exhausted.

Pietro smiled at her. "It's alright," he said. "You can go back to sleep if you want, _sestrichka._ We'll keep you safe."

The girl blinked before her eyes slid closed and she was once more fast asleep.

Pietro sat back down on the floor and noticed Natasha staring at him.

"You know Russian?" she asked.

"No, I know Sokovian. Your language and my language have many similarities, including the word for little sister."

"Did you find her patient file yet?"

He shook his head.

"Well don't quit. We still have a couple hours before we reach New York."

Pietro sighed and went back to the patient files, placing his current one on top of the 'read' pile and picking another one out of the 'unread' pile. He laid on his back, holding the file above his head. He flipped it open, feeling rather bored, before sitting up straight.

The picture in the file looked like a younger version of the girl sleeping on the cot next to him.

"Hey guys, I think I found the right file!" he cried triumphantly.

Everyone turned to face him. Wanda came and sat next to him on the floor.

"What does it say, Pietro?" she asked.

"There's no name. The file refers to her as 'Experiment Thirteen'. There's not much personal info either, just height and weight and blood type, that sort of thing." He showed them all the picture included in the file. "It says here that she entered the program a little over ten years ago."

"She was trapped in that place for ten years and they never once thought to give her an actual name?" Tony asked incredulously. "I'm gonna start thinking long and hard about nicknames for this kid."

"I'm gonna wager that after being there for ten years she probably developed some abilities. Does it say what they are?" Clint asked.

No," Pietro replied. "There is a section titled 'Abilities', but it just says 'pending'."

"What is going to happen to her when we get back to New York?" Wanda asked.

"SHIELD will most likely intervene. They'll take her to one of their facilities for an evaluation before deciding the best course of action." Steve answered.

"Why can't she just stay with us?" Pietro stood. "There's plenty of room in the compound."

"It's not quite that simple, Pietro," Sam explained. "She's a minor, which means she needs a designated guardian. None of us are around often enough to be her guardian, and with all of the issues we all have, no court is gonna grant us custody of her. And I'm willing to bet good money that after all that crap she's gone through she's gonna have some mental issues as well. She's gonna need a good support system and some good role models. And let's be honest here, some of us are severely lacking the qualities of a good role model."

Everyone simultaneously turned to stare at Tony. He grinned. "Guilty as charged."

Natasha had been uncharacteristically silent during this whole debate, her eyes never once leaving the slumbering girl.

"I'll be her guardian," she said softly.

The Quinjet went silent save for the soft humming of the engines. All eyes were on Natasha.

"I'm sorry, did you just volunteer to be responsible for her?" Tony asked, pointing at the girl on the cot. "I thought you hated kids."

"She's not a kid, Tony." Natasha tore her eyes away from the girl to glare at the billionaire. "She was never a kid. Hydra took her childhood from her, and that's something that she can never get back." She stood. "I know I'm not the best role model. I know I have issues of my own. But this girl needs people she can trust, people who can protect her from the monsters that turned her into what she is today. And nobody can protect her better than we can."

She went and stood next to Pietro. "I'm with Pietro on this one. I think we should let her stay with us."

Wanda stood as well. "I agree with my brother as well. This girl needs people who understand what she went through in that base. And nobody understands better than me and Pietro."

Bucky rose to his feet. "I know how it feels to be taken from your loved ones and forced to do things you don't want to. If we give her over to Fury, he's gonna lock her up. I vote she stays with us."

Tony stood up as well. "You make a convincing argument, Red." he conceded.

Steve and Clint stood up at the same time, leaving only Sam sitting on the floor.

"Come on man, look at her." Clint slung one of his arms around Natasha's shoulders. With his other arm, he pointed at the cot. "Are you really going to put that kid into Fury's hands?"

"Sorry Sam, majority rules," Steve was grinning. He extended an arm toward Sam, grabbing his hand and yanking him to his feet.

"Well then," Sam smirked, turning toward the girl, "It looks like Sleeping Beauty is gonna have quite the surprise when she wakes up."

"I understood that reference," Pietro spoke up.

Tony facepalmed.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Well, the poll results are in, and it was a tie! So I chose the best option myself. Read on to find out what powers Lia has (and her full name is revealed in this chapter as well!). You guys are all so awesome, thanks for being patient and waiting for this chapter. You all deserve it! So enjoy!**

The rest of the flight was spent in relative silence. Pietro kept a close eye on the slumbering girl. She had begun to move around in her sleep, trying to find a more comfortable position.

"This is a good sign," Bucky had said. "It means she's closer to waking up. Keep an eye on her."

Pietro noticed Bucky eyes lingering on her. If he didn't know any better, he'd say the former assassin looked almost wistful, like he was remembering something he'd forgotten long ago. He had seen that same look in the man's eyes back in the girl's cell. Pietro didn't know what to make of it, so he asked Steve.

Steve had watched Bucky observe the girl and smiled. "Bucky had a little sister once, back before Hydra got him," he explained. "Her name was Rebecca. Our mystery girl looks a lot like her. I'm willing to bet that seeing her has stirred up some old memories of him and his sister."

Pietro spent the rest of the flight watching Bucky.

ooOOoo

When the Quinjet touched down, the Avengers were surprised to see Nick Fury waiting for them outside the compound with a host of SHIELD agents.

Tony looked incredulous. "Alright, who told? Cause it sure as heck wasn't me."

He cast an incriminating glare around the Quinjet, raising an eyebrow when he wasn't able to detect any dishonesty. "None of you told?"

"Are you accusing us of tattling to Fury? Last I checked, we're all over the age of five." Sam stood his ground, arms crossed.

"At least most of us are…" Natasha muttered under her breath.

"Then why is Commander Sunshine waiting for us outside?"

The Quinjet's ramp lowered, allowing Fury to step aboard.

"Congratulations on a successful mission Avengers. I believe you have something of ours. I'm here to take it off your hands." he said calmly.

Natasha caught Pietro's eye and tilted her head toward the cot. He nodded and moved to stand in front of it. Clint and Wanda joined him.

"You mean the file folders? Yeah sure, take them. I was just gonna fold 'em into paper airplanes anyway." Tony replied nonchalantly.

"Give it up Stark. We know you have the girl."

Steve spoke up. "How do you know about her? None of us said anything."

Bucky scowled. "He knew she was at the base. That's why he sent us there." He stepped forward. "You said that base was abandoned, but there were hundreds of agents there waiting for us! You sent us there specifically to find her! How long have you known about her and not done anything?!" Bucky yelled.

"Easy, Buck." Steve put a hand on Bucky's shoulder. "I'm not too happy with the situation either, but getting angry isn't going to solve anything."

"You should listen to the Captain, Sergeant," Fury spoke. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a package to pick up."

"How long?" Natasha's voice was laced with poison. She moved toward Fury until her face was inches from his. "How long have you known about her?"

Fury didn't even flinch. In the same cold, collected voice, he answered, "Experiment Thirteen has been on our radar since 2010. We have reason to believe she was a major driving force in the creation of the earthquake that ravaged Haiti that year. We've been keeping tabs on her ever since."

"You mean to tell me," Natasha said in a low voice, "that you've known about this girl for _six years_ and you've done nothing?"

"Hold on, hold on," Clint interrupted. "What do you mean she helped cause an earthquake? She's just a kid!"

"She didn't help, Barton. She caused it all on her own. We have surveillance footage of her in Haiti at the epicenter of the quake," Fury corrected him. He turned toward the rest of the Avengers. "Experiment Thirteen possesses atmokinetic powers. She can control the weather, the tides, the tectonic plates beneath our feet. If she wanted to destroy the planet, all she'd have to do is raise her hand."

The Quinjet was silent for a moment. Fury continued. "We allowed her to stay in Hydra's custody because that gave us the ability to track their movements. We-"

"You know what Buck?" Steve interrupted. "I've changed my mind. Getting angry is definitely an appropriate response to this situation." He glared at Fury.

Everyone was far too preoccupied to hear the soft rustling noises coming from the cot.

"What are you going to do with her?" Wanda asked. Her eyes were glowing scarlet.

"That's classified information." Fury replied.

Bucky looked livid. "You're going to lock her up, aren't you? Because everyone knows that the best way to protect the planet is to incarcerate anything that could possibly be considered a threat." His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Experiment Thirteen is a danger to herself and others. We can't risk having her out in the world any longer. The world will be much safer with her in a secure location."

Tony stepped between Bucky and Fury. "Yeah, that's not happening," he said. "Sorry Fury, but she's coming with us."

Pietro felt something wet drip onto the back of his neck. He rubbed the area, glancing upward to try and find the source. He was alarmed to see that the entire ceiling was damp and dripping slightly. "Uh, guys…"

Fury ignored him. "I'm not asking nicely again. Release her to SHIELD custody or my agents will intervene."

"Guys! Seriously, this is important!" he said, louder than before.

"Fury, do you honestly think a couple dozen SHIELD agents are going to stop us?" Natasha asked, raising her eyebrows.

"GUYS!" Pietro yelled. "LOOK AT THE CEILING!"

That got their attention. Everybody turned toward Pietro, then looked upwards. The ceiling had gone from damp and slightly drippy to very wet and dripping everywhere. How nobody else had noticed until now, Pietro would never know. As they watched, the dripping grew heavier and heavier until there was water pouring from the ceiling, soaking them all where they stood.

Clint was the first one to realize what was happening. "It's raining…" he said, awestruck.

Bucky peered out the window of the Quinjet. The cement pad where they had landed was completely dry. "Guys, it's not raining outside at all. Only in here."

"But, how-" Steve cut off his own remark, looking in the direction of the medical cot. In all of the confusion, it seems they had neglected to notice that their precious cargo had awoken. She was hiding under her blanket (which, miraculously, was still dry), peering out at the motley crew.

Fury took a few broad strides toward her, still managing to look intimidating despite his drenched attire, but was startled back by a loud clap of thunder that sounded right above his head.

Despite the situation, Sam smirked. "I don't think she likes you very much, Fury."

Tony stepped in front of Fury, blocking his path toward the girl. His hair was plastered to his forehead, water running down it and into his face.

"So help me, Fury, if you take one more step I will sic Nat on you." There was not even a hint of humor in his voice. They continued to argue back and forth.

Bucky saw something familiar in the girl's eyes. It was a look he had seen all too often in his own. Behind the immediate alertness, he could detect fear. Not fear of what might happen to her. Fear of what she was doing at that moment. She wasn't aware that she was able to do this, and she didn't know how to make it stop. That's why she was cowering under her blanket. Not because she was afraid of Fury.

"She's been brainwashed…" he muttered darkly. His metal arm made a plinking sound each time it was hit by a raindrop.

Natasha turned to look at him through a curtain of dripping wet red hair. "How do you know?" she asked.

"She's not afraid of Fury. She's afraid of the fact that she's able to make it rain indoors. She doesn't have any memory of being able to do this and she doesn't know how to make it stop. Trust me. I'm rather intimately aware of what it looks like when a person has been brainwashed." He finished his explanation by crossing his arms over his chest, muffling the plinking noise somewhat.

While Nat and Bucky were talking, Pietro began very slowly creeping over toward the girl, his wet trainers squelching with every step he took. She watched him with wide eyes.

"Can I come closer?" He asked.

He smiled when she nodded, taking small steps to bring himself closer to her until he was standing at the edge of the cot. "My name is Pietro," he said.

He gestured toward Wanda, who was busy trying to telekinetically redirect the excess water around their feet down the exit ramp. "That's my sister, Wanda. We're twins. I'm the older one, though. Don't let her tell you otherwise."

He pointed at Bucky. "That's Bucky. He's sorta grumpy, but you get used to him after a while."

Bucky turned when he heard his name and scowled at Pietro's description of him. The girl smiled a little at that, and the rain's intensity began to lessen.

"That's Steve," he said, pointing at the super soldier who was using his shield as a makeshift umbrella. "He's friends with Bucky. They like to go running in the mornings. They're pretty fast, but I'm faster than both of them." he pointed at himself proudly. The rain lessened even more.

Pietro continued to introduce the girl to each Avenger by name (and Fury, who he described as 'a grumpy cat with an eyepatch'). With each Avenger she was introduced to, the rain would lessen by just a little. By the time she knew everybody's names, the rain had just about stopped.

"Now," Pietro said, leaning a little closer than before, "you know all our names, _sestrichka._ Are you ready to tell us yours?"

The girl was sitting up now, still wrapped in her blanket. She cast her gaze around the room at the many people who inhabited it, most of which were waiting expectantly for her response. She turned toward Pietro, leaning toward him and cupping her hands around his ear, before whispering one word.

"Lia."

ooOOoo

After a very long and winded argument (which finally came to end when Natasha threatened all parties involved with extensive "cognitive recalibration"), Tony managed to convince Fury to let Lia stay with them.

"This is a temporary thing," Fury explained. "It'll be easier to examine her and perform a med eval at the medical facilities here than to re-sedate her and take her elsewhere. Barring any serious medical issues, the eval should only last a couple of hours."

Seeing as the only one who had gained her trust so far was Pietro, he was chosen to accompany her. Natasha pulled Bucky aside before they left.

"Fury has something up his sleeve. There's no way he would give up that easily. Pietro is way too easily distracted to notice if anything fishy is going on, and you have a pretty intimate knowledge of what goes on in these med evals. I want you to go with them so you can keep an eye on things and make sure Fury doesn't try to find something that isn't actually there."

He nodded, understanding. Natasha thought Fury was going to try and fabricate a medical issue of some sort so he would have an excuse to take Lia away from the compound. He knew what normally went on in these exams, seeing as he'd had so many before. Natasha wanted him to keep an eye on the tests they were doing to make sure they weren't trying to make it seem like something was wrong, even though nothing really was.

Bucky watched as Pietro coaxed the young girl out from under her blanket (which she refused to leave behind) and took her hand. She was definitely in her early teens, though she certainly didn't act like it. If he didn't know any better, he'd say she was a ten or eleven-year-old trapped in a fourteen-year-old body. He supposed she hadn't gotten much in the way of social interaction, being trapped in a Hydra base for 10 straight years. And the multiple brainwashings he suspected she'd had probably didn't help, either.

They walked down the Quinjet's ramp and toward the compound. Lia's eyes widened in awe. After telling Pietro her name, she hadn't said another word, but her expression said it all. She hadn't been outdoors for quite a while; Bucky could tell.

The walk to the medical center was brief; it was designed to have the shortest distance from the landing pad in comparison to all other areas of the compound, to facilitate a faster response from medical personnel in the event of a post-mission emergency. They were met by at the entrance by a Korean woman with long black hair pinned back in a bun.

"Good morning, Doctor Cho," Fury greeted her. "This is the girl we told you about."

"Her name is Lia," Pietro added. He didn't want them referring to her as Experiment Thirteen anymore. It made his blood boil.

Doctor Cho smiled at Lia. "Hello, Lia. It's very nice to meet you." She turned toward the rest of them, a confused look making its way onto her face. "Why are you all dripping wet?"

Lia hung her head. Bucky spoke up. "It's a long story…"

She just shook her head. "Never mind, then. I'll have one of my assistants send some towels out to you all. In the meantime," she turned to Lia, "we'll get you into a hospital gown."

Lia looked up at Pietro, who nodded at her. "It's okay, we'll see you again in just a minute," he explained.

Lia looked frightened, but she complied nonetheless. They watched at Doctor Cho took her hand and led her away from them. One of the other doctors came out a few minutes later with towels for them all and instructed them to take off their shoes and carry them inside the facility. "That way," he explained, "you won't track wet footprints everywhere. It's not sanitary, and people could slip." He then led them to an examination room to wait for Lia.

Pietro looked mildly uncomfortable at the prospect of being in the exam room. Bucky understood. Years of forced medical exams had instilled a hatred of hospitals in both of them. But for both of them, the last time that had happened was years before. Bucky could only imagine what Lia was feeling right now, what with the terror of being in a hospital still so recent in her mind, even if she couldn't remember exactly what happened.

The door opened, revealing Doctor Cho with an absolutely terrified Lia in tow. She visibly relaxed when she saw Pietro.

"Hop up on the table for me, will you dear?" Doctor Cho asked kindly.

Lia did as she was told, scooting closer to where Pietro was sitting so that she could grab his hand. Bucky smiled a little at her happy-face hospital gown. Maybe Doctor Cho would be able to qualm Lia's fears a little.

"Now, let's take your vitals." Doctor Cho removed the stethoscope from around her neck and got to work.

Bucky observed her as she performed the examination. She took Lia's pulse, listened to her heart and lungs, and took her blood pressure. She checked her reflexes and looked into her eyes, ears, and throat.

"Alright, next up is the blood draw. Can I see your arm, Lia?" she asked.

All the color drained from Lia's face as she shook her head frantically. She pushed herself as far back as she could go on the exam table, strategically hiding the areas of her arms that blood was normally drawn from.

"It's perfectly normal to be afraid of needles, Lia. It only hurts for a minute or so, and it will be over before you know it," Doctor Cho explained.

Lia still shook her head, tears coming to her eyes. "Needles are bad," she whispered. "They make you hurt."

She briefly extended her arm to the doctor, revealing the many pockmarked scars she still held from her stay with Hydra, before curling it back toward herself again.

Bucky had a feeling that if she didn't calm down soon, it would start raining in the exam room. He pushed himself out of the uncomfortable plastic chair he was sitting in and hopped onto the exam table, pushing himself back until he was against the wall next to Lia. She stared up at him, still scared but curious as to what he was doing at the same time.

"Have you seen Pietro's arm?" He asked her.

She shook her head. Bucky turned to Pietro. "Show her," he said.

Pietro rolled up his arm to reveal little scars nearly identical to Lia's. Her eyes widened. "They hurt you, too?" she asked quietly.

Pietro nodded. Bucky turned back to Lia. "Doctor Cho isn't going to give you a shot, she just needs a blood sample to make sure you're healthy."

"Will it hurt?" she asked.

"Not in the way you're thinking," Pietro answered. "It will just pinch for a minute."

"Oh." Lia tentatively held her arm out to the doctor, trying hard not to shake. The doctor worked quickly, cleaning the area and tying a tourniquet around her upper arm before beginning the blood draw. Lia had to look away; she pressed her face into Bucky's arm so she wouldn't have to see. He stroked the back of her head with his flesh hand, trying to offer some form of comfort.

"There! All done," Doctor Cho stated, placing a happy-face band-aid on the girl's arm.

Pietro was indignant. "You have happy face bandages? How come you always give us the boring ones?"

Doctor Cho smirked. "Happy-face band-aids are for good patients. When was the last time you were a good patient, hmm?"

Pietro was silent after that.

ooOOoo

The rest of the exam went smoothly and without any further issues. Natasha had dropped by near the end with some clothes she that she said would fit the girl (how Natasha got so good at gauging other people's measurements Bucky would never know).

When Lia came back from changing out of her hospital gown, she was wearing a pair of jeans and a red and white striped t-shirt. She yawned, her stomach growling at almost the same time.

"I'm sensing two different issues here that need to be resolved. Which one is the most pressing? Food or sleep?" Bucky asked, a small smile gracing his features.

"Food," she said. "I'm starving."

"I think we can take care of that," he replied. He strode over to the elevator and pressed the button for the residential floor. "Steve may not look it, but he's a fantastic cook."

Pietro came walking out of the medical center after that, having stayed behind for a moment at Fury's insistence. He was holding another file folder.

"Fury gave me Lia's file," he explained. "There's more info in this one then there is in the one we found at the base. Maybe we'll be able to find out a little more about you, _sestrichka_." he smiled at Lia.

"You keep calling me that. What does it mean?" Lia was much more talkative now.

"It means 'little sister' in Sokovian. Because that is how I think of you. As my little sister."

Lia smiled. "How do you say big brother in Sokovian?" she asked.

"'Big brother' in Sokovian is _bratishka."_

"Then you are my _bratishka_ ," she replied. She turned to Bucky. "You too."

"Me? You sure you want me as a big brother, Rosie?" he was flipping through Lia's file.

"Rosie?" she asked, confused.

"It says here that your full name is Liana Rose Lewis. Your middle name is Rose. And if you're going to give me a cool nickname then I want to have one for you, too." he explained.

"Rosie…" she said, trying it out. "I like it."

Bucky didn't tell her the real reason why he wanted to call her Rosie. As it turns out, she looked very similar to his late sister, Rebecca. He had called her Rosie, too. Everybody else had called her Becky, but he wanted to call her something different, something special. Seeing Lia had brought quite a few memories of his sister back to the surface. Speaking of memories…

"What do you remember from before you woke up in the jet, Lia?" he asked her. The elevator doors opened, and the three of them stepped on.

Lia opened her mouth to speak, then shut it again. "I… can't remember. Why can't I remember?" Her eyes widened. "That stuff that happened in the jet, all the water. Was that me?" she asked.

"Yeah, that was you," Pietro answered. The elevator doors closed, and there was a small huff as the elevator began to rise.

She looked shocked. "I did that?" she asked quietly. "I didn't know I could do that. Am I in trouble?"

Bucky chuckled. "No, you're not in trouble. But you do need to try and keep it under control. Something tells me Tony wouldn't like it very much if it started snowing in the kitchen."

The elevator doors opened once more to reveal the residential area. As if on cue, Tony walked into the room. "Well if it isn't Elsa and Roadrunner, back from the med bay with… Waldo?"

He gestured to her red and white striped shirt. "Tell me you've at least heard of Where's Waldo." He was practically begging at this point.

She shook her head. Tony sighed audibly. "Don't worry kid, we're gonna work on that. We'll get you all caught up with popular culture. Then," he raised his voice so that everybody in the general vicinity could hear him, "at least someone will understand my references!"

Bucky just smiled and shook his head. The next few days were going to be interesting, to say the least.

"Now," Tony continued, "to start your initiation into the world of pop culture, we can start with the aforementioned cartoon marathon…"


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: So in order for this chapter to make sense, I'm going to give you guys a summary of what happened in my story universe in the last few years.**

 **Civil War never actually happened. The government decided that the Avengers were doing a good job of things and decided not to get involved. Steve went and got Bucky from Romania himself and brought him back to the compound so he could get the help he needs. Spiderman: Homecoming will happen eventually, but it hasn't yet. As for Infinity War, I'm not sure yet. I need to see the movie first before I decide.**

 **Also, somebody asked me why Pietro is still alive in my universe. Basically, his insane metabolism allowed him to heal really quickly after being shot at. Also, he's hilarious and I really wanted him in my story. So yeah.**

 **I own Lia, but I don't own the Avengers, or Spiderman. I really wish I owned Spiderman. the thought that I don't own it depresses me.**

A week came and went. Every day, the Avengers learned something new about their young charge.

On Saturday, they learned the true extent of Lia's powers. Bucky and Pietro had taken her outdoors and exposed her to all kinds of outside stimuli to try and induce her powers. It had worked a little too well. Half of the compound was covered in a foot of snow and the other half had trees blown over due to high winds. But they did find out that she was able to create rain, snow, sleet, hail, high winds, and thunderstorms, along with the ability to raise and lower the ambient temperature and create and reduce cloud cover. They weren't exactly willing to test her ability to create natural disasters, though. They decided to take Fury's word for it, just this once.

On Sunday, they discovered just how smart she really was. Clint was feeling rather existential that day, wandering around the compound asking people why the grass was green and why the sky was blue. Most everybody had ignored him, except Lia. Without skipping a beat, she answered that the sky was blue because the molecules in the Earth's atmosphere scattered blue light in all directions, and because the blue light had shorter wavelengths, it was scattered more than the other colors. As for the grass, she attributed it's color to the chlorophyll it created. Tony had one of the scientists give her an IQ test after that and was shocked to hear the results. She scored at 145, nearly genius level.

On Monday, they got the results of her medical exam. All of the tests had come back normal, except for one. According to her results, Lia was slightly nearsighted, but not enough to need glasses. They also learned her true age. According to the file Fury had given them, Lia was, in fact, fifteen, and not fourteen like they had originally thought.

On Tuesday, they saw just how much control she had over her powers. Pietro had hidden in a utility closet, waiting for Wanda to pass so he could jump out and scare her. He had ended up scaring the living daylights out of Lia instead, causing her to make it rain all over the common room. When Clint had run into the room to see what was going on, he stepped onto the wet carpet and got a mild electric shock, due to the exposed TV wiring that Tony had yet to fix. Clint ended up spending the night in the medical facility, even though he insisted he was all right.

Tony decided to waterproof the compound after that.

On Wednesday, they found out that she was trained to fight. Natasha had the idea to take her into the training room and try sparring with her to see what, if anything, she knew. Tony shot down that idea pretty fast, saying that if anybody was going to spar with her, it was not going to be Nat. They sent her to spar with Clint instead, knowing that he would be able to tone things down enough to get a sense of her skill level. They were all very surprised, however, when she was able to flip him and pin him to the ground. Clint didn't go easy on her again after that. It seemed that Hydra had taught her more than just how to use her powers.

On Thursday, they learned a lot of little things about her. Her favorite color, what she did and did not like to eat, her favorite animal, that sort of thing. Pietro felt it was important for them to know these things. He learned her favorite color was yellow, her favorite animal was a cat, and that she loved pizza but hated pineapple.

On Friday, they realized how much she'd really gone through. Steve woke up that night to screaming and went to Lia's room, only to find it soaking wet and uninhabited. He followed the trail of wet footprints to the rooftop, where Lia was laying on her back, looking up at the stars.

"What are you doing up here?" he asked.

"I had a nightmare," she replied. "I didn't want to be alone, so I came up here."

He looked confused. "But you are alone up here."

"No, I'm not," she said. "I'm never alone when I'm watching the stars, because I know that, somewhere out there, there is another person watching the same stars and feeling the same way."

Little did either of them know that a lonely boy from Queens was watching those same stars, and feeling exactly the same way that she did.

Eventually, one week turned into two, which turned into three, which turned into a month. Lia felt like she had finally found a family, people who loved and cared about her. So why did she still feel so alone?

ooOOoo

One day, about a month and a half after Lia had arrived, Tony said he was going to be leaving the compound for the day to take care of some business in the city. Lia asked to go with him.

"I want to see the city. How big is it? I've heard it's really big!" she was very excited.

Tony had read her file and knew that there had been several sightings of her in New York over the years. Maybe, he thought, if he took her there, she would regain a few of her memories. So he agreed.

"Sure kid, you can come with. But you have to stick with me and do everything I say."

She broke out into a wide grin that made Tony smile himself. "Of course! I promise."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going."

About an hour later, Tony was watching Lia stare out the window of the car in awe. He'd told Happy to take the scenic route, so Lia could get a good view of the city on the way to their destination.

"So, what do you think, Tesla?" She'd earned that nickname after Tuesday's electrocution debacle.

"It's SO much bigger than I thought it would be…" she said reverently.

He chuckled. "Glad you figured that out." he turned toward the driver. "Happy, how much farther?"

"About ten minutes, sir." Happy responded.

When the ten minutes was up, Lia watched, confused, as the car pulled up to an apartment building in the middle of Queens. "What are we doing here?" she asked, getting out of the car.

"This," Tony gestured toward the building, "is the home of what will hopefully be our newest Avenger." He grinned. "You wanna meet him?"

She nodded, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. "Yeah!"

"Alright, but you have to be quiet and let me do the talking. And please, please control your powers. I don't know about you, but I'd probably freak out if it started randomly hailing in my living room."

She smiled slyly.

"Don't get any ideas about what you want to do when we get home either!" he pointed a finger at her. "Or so help me I will never take you on another field trip ever again."

"Fine." she crossed her arms.

"Good. Let's go up, now that we have that all sorted out." he gestured for Lia to follow him as he started climbing the stairs.

"This is the right one, I think." He knocked on the door.

A woman with long brown hair answered it. Lia could see in Tony's face that he found her attractive. She pinched his arm to keep him from saying anything inappropriate. She may be young (and act even younger) but she definitely wasn't stupid.

"Ow! For the love of… what was that for?" he asked Lia.

She gave him a pointed look. He sighed, understanding. "Sorry about that," he addressed the woman. "My name is Tony Stark, and this is my, um, what exactly are you? My plus one?" he asked Lia.

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah let's go with that, she's my plus one. Anyway, I'm here to talk to your nephew."

"You want to talk with Peter? What about?" she asked.

"He applied for one of my grants, the September Foundation. I'm here to tell him that his application was approved," Tony replied smoothly.

The woman looked confused. "He didn't tell me anything about a grant."

"We've been emailing back and forth," he replied.

Oh, alright. Peter's not home from school yet, but you're welcome to come in and wait for him. He shouldn't be too long." She seemed much more relaxed now. She opened the door wider so they could walk in. "I'm May, by the way."

"Wanna introduce yourself, kid?" Tony asked Lia.

She nodded. "I'm Lia," she said.

May smiled. "It's nice to meet you. You look about Peter's age. How old are you?" she asked.

"I'm fifteen," she replied.

"So you are the same age as Peter. What school do you go to?"

Lia thought for a moment. "I'm homeschooled," she replied. From the corner of her eye, she saw Tony nod approvingly.

"How nice. Would either of you like some walnut loaf? I made some just today," May said.

"Sounds good. I'll take some," Tony replied.

"How about you, hon?" May turned to Lia.

She shook her head. "No thanks."

"Alright. I'll be right back, then." May turned and left the room.

Tony turned to Lia. "Nice job, thinking up that homeschool bit. If she asks why your here, say you're my sort-of niece that lives out of town and you wanted to see the city."

She wrinkled her nose. "I thought I was your 'plus one', whatever that means."

"That was me thinking on the fly. You're my niece. End of story," he said.

May returned with a slice of the walnut loaf for Tony. "Here you go." She handed it to him.

He took a bite. "Hey, this is actually pretty good," he replied.

May beamed. "Thank you. I'm afraid Peter doesn't like it much, so I only make a little bit for me every now and then."

Lia heard the front door open and close. "Hey Aunt May!" she heard a teenage boy call out.

"Hey," May replied. "How was school today?"

"Okay. This crazy car parked outside…" The teenage boy in question stopped when he reached the living room. Lia saw his eyes widen at the sight of Tony Stark, and then widen even more when he saw her.

"Oh, Mr. Parker," Tony greeted him casually, walnut loaf in hand.

The teen looked very confused. "Umm. What. What are you doing…? Hey, I'm-I'm-I'm Peter," he stuttered.

"Tony," Tony replied. He pointed at Lia. "And that's Lia."

She waved a little at Peter, trying to smile. She hadn't had much experience with people her own age, so being around him made her a little nervous.

Peter waved back before turning to Tony. "What are… What are you-What are you- What are you doing here?" he finally managed to get out.

"It's about time we met. You've been getting my emails, right? Right?" Tony gave Peter a look telling him to play along.

He got the message. "Yeah, yeah. Regarding the…"

"You didn't tell me about the grant." May turned toward her nephew.

"About the grant." Peter finished his sentence.

"The September Foundation," Tony said.

"Right." Peter didn't look at all sure of what he was saying.

"Yeah. Remember when you applied?" Tony asked.

"Yeah."

"I approved. So now we're in business."

May frowned at Peter. "You didn't tell me anything. What's up with that? You're keeping secrets from me?"

"Why, I just, I just... I just know how much you love surprises, so I thought I would let you know... wh... Anyway, what did I apply for?" Peter was thoroughly confused at this point.

"That's what we're here to hash out." Tony gestured to himself and to Lia.

"Okay, hash, hash out, okay." Peter glanced over at Lia, hoping for some context as to what was going on. She just shrugged. She had no idea where Tony was going with this either.

Tony gestured over to May. "It's so hard for me to believe that she's someone's aunt," he stated.

May smiled. "We come in all shapes and sizes, you know."

"This walnut loaf is exceptional," he said, taking another bite.

"Let me just stop you there," Peter interrupted.

"Yeah?"

"Is this grant, like, got money involved, or whatever? No?" he asked.

Yeah," Tony replied.

Yeah." Peter looked unsure.

"It's pretty well funded," Tony said.

"Wow."

"Look who you're talking to." Tony turned to May. "Can we have five minutes with him?"

May nodded. "Sure."

ooOOoo

As soon as the door to his bedroom closed, Peter started trying to explain. "Okay, look, umm, I definitely did not apply for your grant…"

"Uh, uh. Me first." Tony cut him off.

Lia stood in the corner, not exactly sure of what she should be doing. Peter was watching her with keen interest. "You can, you can sit, if-if you want," he told her. He gestured to his bed.

She nodded, sitting on the edge. He shook his head as if trying to clear his thoughts.

"Quick question of the rhetorical variety. That's you, right?" Tony pulled out his phone and showed Peter a video of a person in a blue and red getup stopping a bus with his bare hands.

"Um, no. What do you, what do you…" Peter couldn't get the words out.

"Whoa," Lia spoke for the first time since Peter had entered the apartment. He looked at her. She was staring at Tony's phone in awe.

She turned to look at Peter. "That's you?" she asked.

"Um, kinda, well no, I mean, it's complicated, but… yeah," he stammered.

"That's so cool," she replied.

He shook his head. "Who, who are you, really?" he asked.

"I…" she paused for a moment, thinking. "I'm like you," she said. "I can do things that nobody else can. I'm… unique."

Peter nodded, understanding completely. Tony cleared his throat. They both looked at him.

"Okay, now that that's over with, let's get down to business. We didn't come here today to offer you a grant. We came here today to offer you something even better." He looked at Lia. "Tell him."

Peter looked at her. She smiled. "We, I mean, Tony, wants to offer you a place as one of the Avengers."

Peters' eyes widened in awe. "An Avenger? Really? You-you mean it?"

"Kid, would I be here right now if I didn't mean it?" he asked.

"Mr. Stark, this is amazing, I can't thank you enough-"

"Alright, enough of that. Do you accept?" He asked.

"Well, I mean, I'd miss a lot of school, and I don't know what I'm gonna say to May-"

"Don't worry about it kid. I'll take care of school and your unusually attractive aunt," Tony said. "But you won't be a full member until you're eighteen, and you have to complete training before you can go on any missions."

Peter nodded. "Yeah, yeah, of course, I can do that. I can't believe it. Me, a fifteen-year-old kid from Queens, an Avenger…"

"So you accept?" Tony asked once more.

Peter only had to think for a moment. "Yeah, I accept!"

"Awesome. So that's done. Now, how about coming back to the compound with us for a bit? We can get Pepper to take care of the paperwork and other boring stuff and we can give you the grand tour."

"And I can show you my powers," Lia said excitedly.

"Okay." Honestly, Peter was more excited to see Lia's powers than he was for the tour. Ever since he'd laid eyes on the girl, he'd known she was different. But it was a good different, he could tell. Peter couldn't wait to learn more about her.

ooOOoo

Tony left the room for a bit to square things away with Peter's aunt, leaving the two teenagers to their own devices.

Peter spoke first. "So, what exactly are your powers? What can you do?" he asked.

"You're not stuttering anymore," Lia pointed out.

"Yeah, well…" Peter rubbed the back of his neck. "I was kinda nervous being around Tony Stark."

"And you're not nervous around me?" she asked.

"Well, no, oddly enough. Normally I stutter even more around girls, but not you."

"Well, why do you normally stutter around girls?" she queried.

Peter had to think for a moment. "I guess it's because I never know what to say to them," he concluded. "I'm so nervous about what they think of me that I can't get any words out at all."

"You're not like that around me," Lia reminded him.

"I know. It's starting to freak me out a bit," Peter admitted.

Lia pondered the situation for a moment. "Maybe it's because I'm not like other girls," she said quietly.

Peter sat next to her on the edge of the bed. "Maybe."

They were silent for a moment. "You never did answer my question," he pointed out.

"That's true," she conceded.

"So? What are your powers?"

"Atmokinesis. I can control the weather," she explained.

"Seriously? That's awesome! So you can, like, make it snow and rain and stuff?" he asked.

"Pretty much, yeah." she shrugged.

Peter hesitated a moment. "Hey, so um, can I ask you a question?"

"You just did." She grinned cheekily.

He rolled his eyes. "Ha, ha. I'm serious. You don't have to answer it if you don't want to."

She nodded. "Ask away."

"Do you ever feel… I don't know… do you ever feel alone? Like there's nobody else in the world that understands exactly what you're feeling?" he asked.

Lia was silent for a minute. "Yeah," she said softly. "Yeah, I do. All the time. I live with the Avengers, and there's always somebody around doing something, so I shouldn't feel lonely, but I do. I feel so alone." she bit her lip, looking down at her lap.

"Me too. I mean, I have May, and she's amazing, don't get me wrong, but… I don't know." he sighed. "I guess I just want somebody that understands."

"Same here." she sighed as well.

Peter's bedroom door opened and Tony poked his head in. "Okay kid, I've got things squared away with your aunt," he said. "What's with the long faces?" he asked, seeing their glum expressions.

"It's nothing," Lia said. "We were just talking."

He shook his head. "I'm not even gonna ask," he replied. "You ready to go Spiderling, Tesla?"

"Tesla?" Peter asked Lia.

She waved him off. "I'll explain later. Yeah, we're ready."

"Then let's go. Aunt Hottie wants you back by eleven."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: To the reader who requested some Mother-Daughter bonding time between Lia and Natasha: This chapter's for you. :) Enjoy!**

Peter and Lia spent most of the drive back to the compound talking and asking each other questions. Tony chose to sit up front with Happy this time, listening to their conversation with a knowing smile on his face.

"Okay, if you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?" Lia asked.

"Hmm…" Peter thought. "I guess London might be pretty cool. You could see Big Ben and Buckingham Palace and all that."

"I want to go to London too," Lia replied.

"Yeah, but for a completely different reason," Tony chimed in from the front passenger seat. "Lia here is absolutely obsessed with Doctor Who."

"You like Doctor Who?" Peter asked, smiling. "What's your favorite Doctor?"

"I've only seen the first couple of seasons, but I already like Ten more than Nine," she replied.

"Wait til' you get to season 5. You'll love Eleven," he said.

"Your turn to ask a question," she reminded him.

"Favorite ice cream flavor?"

"Chocolate," she responded immediately. "You?"

"Rocky Road."

"Okay… what's your favorite animal? Is it a spider?" she asked teasingly.

"No! I actually hate spiders. They freak me out," he answered quickly. "I think my favorite animal would probably be a dog."

"Are you aware of how ironic that is?" she asked. "The fact that Spiderman is afraid of spiders?"

"Yeah. It's odd, I know. What's your favorite animal?"

"A cat. They rub against your legs and purr when you scratch their head."

"You like cats more than dogs?" Peter asked incredulously.

"Dogs are okay!" Lia said defensively. "I just happen to get along better with cats. Now ask your question."

"Alright, alright. What are you most afraid of?" he asked.

Tony listened intently. He was curious what she would say.

Lia was silent for a moment. "There are lots of things I'm afraid of," she admitted. "Needles, broken glass, getting hurt… but if there is one thing I'm afraid of the most, it's being left alone. I'm terrified that everyone I know will get bored of me and leave."

It was Peter's turn to be silent. "That's what I'm afraid of, too. Not of people getting bored and leaving. More like people dying. My parents died when I was really little, so I went to live with my Aunt May and Uncle Ben. And then, a little over a year ago, my uncle…" Peter couldn't finish his sentence.

Lia hugged him. "I'm so sorry," she said quietly.

Peter hugged her back, fighting to regain control of his emotions. He didn't know why he'd told her that. The only person he'd ever told that to was his best friend Ned, and it had taken him a whole month to pry that information out of him.

Peter pulled away after a minute or so, taking deep breaths. He'd managed not to cry. He didn't want to cry in front of Lia.

"It's funny," he started. "It took my best friend Ned a full month to get me to tell him that. And all you had to do to get me to spill my guts was ask one time."

Lia smiled at him. Peter got a funny fluttering feeling in his stomach. "It sounds weird, but I actually tend to have that effect on people. I'm like a human lie detector. I don't really know why. Last week, Pietro stole Wanda's phone and refused to tell her where he put it. All I had to do is ask him once and he told me straight out that he put it on top of the refrigerator."

"I think it has something to do with your willingness to listen," Tony pointed out. "You made it clear within the first three days you were here that if anybody needed to vent they could come and talk to you."

"I never said anything like that at all," Lia said confused.

"You didn't actually say anything out loud, no," Tony explained. "But actions speak louder than words. You constantly ask us all if we're okay. And you're actually a very good listener. You may be young, but kid, you're well on your way to becoming the team psychiatrist."

"I just worry about you guys, is all," she said. "I want to make sure you all are okay. Nobody ever cared if I was okay or not."

"What do you mean?" Peter asked.

"That's a long story we don't have time to get into," Tony answered.

Lia played with her hands in her lap. Peter could tell she didn't feel very comfortable discussing that topic, so he decided to drop it.

"Anyway… what's your favorite color?"

ooOOoo

As soon as the compound came into view, Peter's mouth dropped open.

Lia noticed his gape and smiled. "Pretty cool, huh?"

Peter just nodded. He was in too much shock to say anything.

Happy pulled in front of the compound, then walked around and opened the car door for the two teens.

Lia slid out of the car, beckoning for Peter to follow her. "Come on inside! I'll give you the grand tour."

Tony watched the pair as they walked through the compound doors. Happy came and stood next to him.

"Is it wise to let them go off on their own, sir?" he asked.

"Trust me, Happy. I know exactly what I'm doing," he replied.

ooOOoo

Unbeknownst to Tony, Bucky was inside observing the pair. He immediately saw how well they got along. Lia seemed much more open and relaxed with that boy around.

He went over to Tony when he entered the compound. "Don't think I don't know what you're doing," he told him.

Tony waved the assassin off. "What's the big deal? Lia needs friends her own age."

"Yeah, but I don't think friendship is what you're aiming for," Bucky pointed out.

"And what, pray tell, is Tony aiming for?" Natasha walked into the room, hair wet from taking a shower.

Bucky replied before Tony could make up an excuse. "He's trying to get those two together."

She raised an eyebrow. "Tony…"

He raised his hands in defense. "I just thought Lia could use a friend, is all! Somebody her own age to talk to."

Nat watched silently as Peter emphatically described something to Lia. He gestured about wildly. Lia's eyes were glued to him, enraptured.

"She does seem more open around him," Nat agreed.

All three of their mouths dropped open when they heard her laugh.

In the six weeks Lia had been staying at the compound, she had hit several milestones. She started smiling, talking more, and generally acting happier. But none of them had heard her laugh until now. The fact that Peter was able to get her to laugh after knowing her for only a few hours was nothing short of extraordinary.

"See what I'm talking about?" Tony asked, pointing to the pair. "None of us were able to make her laugh."

"Maybe having a friend her age will be good for her," Nat conceded.

Her phone chimed. She checked it, her usual emotionless facade dropping to reveal subdued excitement. She covered her mouth with one of her hands.

"What's got you so excited?" Bucky asked.

"I got an email from Maria," she replied.

"Is this about-"

"SHH!" Bucky and Natasha cut Tony off before he could spoil anything.

Peter and Lia both looked up. "Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Everything's fine," Bucky answered.

Lia didn't look very convinced, but she went back to talking with Peter nonetheless.

Bucky turned back to Nat. "Are you approved?" he asked quietly.

She nodded, grinning. "I just have to sign the paperwork. Everything else has been taken care of."

Tony patted Natasha's shoulder. "Congrats, Red. When are you gonna tell her?"

She put her phone back in her pocket. "Can you keep him occupied for a little while?" she asked, gesturing toward Peter. "I don't want to wait any longer than I have to."

"Yeah, sure. I'll show him the R&D department. That oughta keep him busy." Tony answered.

He turned toward the pair. "Hey, kid!" he called out. "How would you like to go see the labs?"

Peter nodded vigorously. "That'd be amazing, Mr. Stark! Is Lia coming with us?" he asked.

"Lia will catch up with you guys in a little while. I need to talk with her for a bit," Natasha replied vaguely.

Peter looked a little disappointed but smiled nonetheless. "Okay."

Tony began walking toward the elevator, gesturing for Peter to follow.

ooOOoo

Lia followed Natasha into her quarters and sat on the bed. Natasha handed her a hairbrush and then sat down in front of her.

This had become a bit of a routine for the two. Whenever Natasha was at the compound, Lia would come in her room in the morning after she had showered and proceeded to brush hair. Then they'd switch, and Nat would brush Lia's hair. Natasha found that it had a calming effect on the girl, not to mention it gave them time to talk and bond.

Lia ran the hairbrush through Natasha's wet locks. "What did you want to talk to me about?" she asked.

"I honestly don't know where to begin," the assassin admitted.

"The beginning is always good," Lia pointed out.

"True," Natasha agreed. She thought for a moment before beginning.

"Do you remember what we told you about where you lived before you came to live with us?" she asked.

Lia nodded. "I was in an enemy facility," she replied. "You guys rescued me." The Avengers had elected not to tell her about the fact that Hydra was involved for the time being.

"When we rescued you, you were asleep. You slept the entire plane ride home. I spent that entire plane ride thinking about you. You reminded me of myself. I was taken from my family at a young age and forced to stay with enemies as well. The enemies I stayed with took away my ability to have children." She paused.

"I'm sorry," Lia said.

"Don't be. I came to terms with it a long time ago."

Lia stopped brushing Nat's hair and began to braid it.

"Anyway… I started thinking about what was going to happen to you when we got back. I knew that Fury would most likely try to take you away. I wasn't going to let that happen, though. We managed to convince him to let you stay with us temporarily, but I wanted you to stay with us, with me, permanently. I have temporary custody of you, you know that. But that won't last forever. So… I made some adjustments."

Lia froze mid-braid.

Nat turned around to face her. Lia's eyes were open wide, her mind trying to figure out what Natasha was implying.

"What are you saying?" Lia asked quietly.

Nat took a deep breath. Nervousness was a feeling she hadn't felt in a long while. "I have all the paperwork downstairs, everything is taken care of, I just wanted to ask you first before I finalize it."

"Finalize what?" Lia whispered.

Natasha took Lia's hands in her own. "Your adoption," she said.

It took a moment for Lia to process what Natasha had just said. "You're… adopting me?" she asked, tears in her eyes.

There were tears in the older woman's eyes as well. "Only if you want me to. From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew I wanted you as my daughter. I know that we still have a lot to learn about one another, but we can learn as we go. Can I adopt you?"

Lia flung her arms around Natasha's neck. "Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes!" she cried.

Natasha hugged Lia close to her. "We can go sign the paperwork right now. Maria worked out all the kinks for us."

"I have a mom," Lia whispered, more to herself than to Natasha. "I have a mom."

Both of them were silent for a minute.

"Thank you, Natasha," Lia said softly.

Natasha gave Lia one last squeeze before letting go. "You're welcome, _Malyshka_."

"What's that word mean?" she asked.

She smiled. "It means 'little one'.You're my little one now, even though you really aren't very little."

Lia grabbed Nat's hand. "Let's go sign the paperwork! Come on!"

Natasha just chuckled and followed her soon-to-be daughter out the door.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Expect a couple more chapters of this story sometime this week. I'm trying to write a little more than usual to make up for the fact that I'm leaving town in a week and a half and most likely won't be writing anything at all for a weeklong period of time. I'm completely astounded at how popular this story has gotten. People have been reading it all around the world from Australia to the UK to Canada to Brazil to Greece... I could list dozens more as well. Thank you so much for all of the love, you guys! This is what motivates me to keep writing! Please read and review!**

 **WARNING! This chapter contains panic attacks and mentions of blood. You've been warned...**

Over the course of the next few weeks, Peter and Lia began spending more and more time together. They exchanged phone numbers the day they met and spent hours texting, calling, or video chatting one another. Peter tried to visit the compound at least once a week, mainly just to see her.

Natasha was very hesitant about allowing her to visit Peter at his house unaccompanied. Lia had been having nightmares and flashbacks as she began to remember what she had gone through. Almost every night she would wake up screaming with a new horrific memory to recount. Natasha took her to see one of the on-site psychiatrists, who diagnosed her with anxiety and PTSD from her time at the Hydra facility. But nobody realized quite how badly she had been scarred until one day about three months after she'd come to live with them.

Peter was visiting her that day. She was outside, showing him the new ability she had discovered a few days prior. She held her hands away from her body and clasped them together gently. She closed her eyes in concentration. When they opened again, she unclasped her hands, revealing a delicate snowflake hovering over her palm.

Peter's mouth dropped open in awe. "How did you do that?" he asked.

"I learned by accident the other day that I can control parts of the water cycle," she explained. "Mainly the evaporation and condensation parts. I was playing around with my powers and accidentally evaporated the contents of Pietro's soda can into thin air. All that was left was this thick syrupy stuff in the bottom. Pietro tried drinking it and spit it out all over Bucky." The girl grinned at the memory.

"Anyway, once the water evaporates, it's stored in the air as water vapor. All I have to do is lower the ambient temperature a bit and it will condense once more. If I lower it enough, like I did between my hands just now, it will freeze to snow and ice. I shaped the ice to create this." She twirled the snowflake.

"That's amazing," Peter said, enraptured.

A loud yell cut off Peter's next remark. "Lia! Peter! Come inside! Dinner's nearly ready!" Bucky shouted.

"Coming!" the two teens shouted back.

Lia let the snowflake fall to the ground, where it melted the instant it made contact. She looked up at her best friend. "Are you gonna stay for dinner? It's spaghetti night, and Steve's cooking."

Peter's mouth began to water at the thought of Steve's cooking. He had only been over for dinner a few times, but nobody could beat the super soldier's culinary skills.

"I'd love to if that's okay."

"I highly doubt Steve will say no," she replied with a smile.

The pair made their way back inside and up to the residential floor, which was filled with the smells of home cooking. Most of the Avengers were sitting in the living area, chatting about insignificant things while they waited for dinner to be finished. Steve was in the kitchen, stirring something in a big pot. He turned to look at them when they came in.

"Hey, you two. Dinner's almost done. Lia, can you set the table?" he asked.

She nodded, entering the kitchen and opening cabinets to get what she needed. Peter watched, amused, as she stood on her tiptoes to try and reach the top shelf where the plates were stored. After a moment or so, he went over and retrieved them for her, a smirk on his face. She stuck her tongue out, taking the plates and turning her back toward him.

While Lia and Peter were setting the table, the elevator dinged again. The doors opened, revealing none other than Nick Fury behind them. All the chatter in the room immediately ceased. Every head turned to face the one-eyed man.

He approached the motley group of heroes, his mouth pressed into a thin line. Subconsciously, Lia took a step behind Peter. After their first unconventional meeting, she had gone out of her way to stay away from him. He still made her very nervous.

"Avengers," he greeted them. "I have a new mission for you."

"Peter," Steve asked, "could you come stir this for me? I'm going to go see what Fury wants."

Peter nodded, taking up Steve's place in front of the stove.

"Why so serious, eyepatch?" Tony asked. "You seem grumpier than usual."

Lia knew that Tony was only joking to try and diffuse the tension that had suddenly crept over everyone in the room. She picked up a few drinking glasses and went to put them on the table, listening carefully.

"Have a seat, Stark." Fury gestured to one of the many couches in the room. "You're going to want to sit down to hear this."

Tony reluctantly did as he was told. He stared at Fury expectantly. "Well?"

Fury cleared his throat before beginning. "Have any of you heard of a Dr. Friedrich Pohl?"

An almighty crash was heard from the kitchen. All eyes turned back to see what had happened. Lia had dropped the drinking glasses she was holding. Her face was white as a sheet, her eyes wide.

"No..." she whispered. "No, no, no…"

She backed away as far as she could, eventually hitting a wall. She slid down it, shaking. Bucky stood and walked toward her. She shrieked as soon as he entered the kitchen and moved away, completely ignoring the broken glass on the floor. She didn't seem to notice the bleeding cuts all over her arms and legs as she scrambled back, desperate to get away from him. She pushed herself all the way back into the opposite corner of the kitchen, breathing hard and shallowly. She pulled her knees up to her chin.

"No!" she cried. "No, I don't want Dr. Pohl! No, no, no!" she yelled.

It seemed as if she were reliving a memory from long ago. She looked about her at things that didn't exist, swatted away people who weren't there. She was crying now, gasping for air. If she didn't calm down soon, she would pass out.

Bucky, ignoring the broken glass, came and sat next to her on the floor. She pushed him away as hard as she could. "No, Asset! No!" she screamed.

Bucky froze.

Steve spoke quietly. "Buck, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think your the best person to try and calm her down right now."

Bucky nodded, still in shock. The fact that she had just called him Asset meant that she had known him when he was Winter Soldier. What else did she know about him?

He slowly began inching away from Lia, hurt and fear evident in his eyes.

Steve cast his eyes around the room, trying to decide who would be the best candidate to try and diffuse Lia's panic attack. His eyes landed on Peter, who had abandoned his position by the stove and was now making his way toward his best friend. He lowered himself to the floor, minding the broken glass, and slid over until he was sitting next to her. She didn't panic and push him away like she had done to Bucky. Instead, she clung to him, holding tightly, as if he was a life preserver and she had fallen overboard.

Peter pulled her closer, gently shushing her in an attempt to calm her down. She wrapped her arms around his middle and he wrapped his around her upper body. He held her while she cried and gasped for air.

"Deep breaths, Lia. Like this." He took a deep breath in, held it a moment, and then let it out once more. "Now try it with me. Deep breath in…"

Lia took a deep, shuddering breath at the same time as him.

"And out."

She let out the breath she'd been holding. They repeated this for several minutes until Lia was no longer gasping for air. She was silent now, trembling in Peter's arms as she fought to regain control of her mind and emotions. Peter's light-colored shirt was covered in many small, deep red splotches from Lia's cuts, but he was too worried about her to care.

Steve was the only one left in the room with them. Everyone else had conveniently disappeared. He was sitting in the opposite corner of the kitchen, watching Peter calmly handle the situation. He was rather impressed, actually.

"How do you know what to do?" Steve asked him quietly.

Peter shifted Lia to a more comfortable position before answering. "When my uncle was killed, my aunt started having nightmares about him dying. She'd wake up with panic attacks. The first time it happened I called 911 because I didn't know what was happening. They had to walk me through how to calm her down. It doesn't happen as often now, but she still wakes up with them sometimes."

He glanced down at Lia. Her eyes had slipped closed moments before. "It looks like the adrenaline finally wore off," he remarked softly. "She's gonna be pretty tired after this. That was a bad one."

"I'm starting to see why Bucky is so close to her," Steve said. "They both went through similar situations, and they both react to those situations the same way."

"Bucky has panic attacks?" Peter asked, surprised.

"Not exactly," Steve explained. "They're more like memory lapses. He forgets he's here with us and thinks he's back with Hydra. Naturally, he'll start panicking and trying to get away. We used to have to sedate him to calm him down, but he's gotten a lot better. He hasn't actually had a memory lapse in about six months." Steve reached behind him and knocked on one of the wood cabinets in the kitchen three times.

Peter looked down once more at the girl in his arms. "Lia?" he asked quietly.

"Hmm?" she murmured, her eyes never once opening.

"How are you feeling?"

"Tired…" she mumbled.

"We need to get you cleaned up before you can rest. You're bleeding pretty badly," he pointed out.

Steve stood from the corner and left the kitchen, returning moments later with a first aid kit. He handed it to Peter, then grabbed a broom and began sweeping up the glass shards.

Peter stood and grabbed a clean dish rag from a drawer and wet it in the sink. He began cleaning the dried blood from Lia's arms, checking each and every cut for bits of glass. Luckily, there was none. He began placing band-aids on the various shallow cuts that covered her arms and legs. One of the cuts on her leg was deeper than the others. It was still bleeding steadily.

"Uh, Steve?" he called.

"Yeah?"

"She's bleeding pretty badly on her leg," he said.

Steve came over to take a look and grimaced. "Yeah. That doesn't look too good."

He grabbed another dish towel and pressed it against her leg to try and staunch the bleeding.

She winced, instinctively trying to move away.

Peter held her steady. "You have to stay still, Lia. We're trying to stop the bleeding."

Steve pulled out a bandage wrap and started wrapping it around the towel to keep it against her leg. "We need to take her to the medical facility," he instructed. "That cut's going to need stitches."

He pulled out his phone and shot a quick text to Tony to let him know what was going on. He turned to Peter.

"Are you strong enough to carry her?" he asked.

Peter nodded. "Super strength, remember? And even if I wasn't super strong, my backpack is heavier than she is."

He stood, picking up the semiconscious girl in his arms. A worrying thought came to him.

"Hey, Steve? She's not super tired because she lost too much blood, is she?" he asked.

Steve shook his head. "She hasn't lost that much blood. She'd have to lose a lot more for it to be a problem."

"Okay, good. I was worried there for a second."

"My leg hurts…" Lia mumbled.

"I know it hurts, Lia," Steve said. "We're going to go to the medical facility to fix you up."

She didn't say anything else. Steve and Peter stepped into the elevator to head down to the med bay.

ooOOoo

As soon as Tony realized what was happening, he began shepherding Fury and the other Avengers into the elevator. When they were all squished inside, he pressed the button for the floor below. There were several conference rooms down there that they could talk in.

Tony knew how hard it was to pull somebody out of a panic attack. He'd had some experience with them himself. He knew that having everybody around staring wouldn't help at all.

Natasha looked livid. "Why can't we stay up there with her?" she asked, glaring at the billionaire.

"Because, Red," Tony replied calmly. "The more people she has hovering around her, the more freaked out she's gonna get. Trust me, I know. The best thing we can do for her right now is to give her some space and let Capsicle and Spiderling diffuse the situation."

"As much as I hate to admit it Natasha, Tony's right," Clint said. "We all need to stay out of the way until everything's been taken care of."

"Wait a minute. Did you actually just agree with me, Legolas?" Tony asked.

Clint facepalmed. "I take it back."

"No, no, everybody heard it, you agreed with me," Tony said smugly.

The elevator doors opened. Everybody filed out and into the nearest conference room, finding seats around the large table.

Fury stayed standing. "Now then. Back to the matter at hand. Miss Lewis, evidently, has heard of Friedrich Pohl, but has anyone else?"

Pietro and Wanda both raised their hands. "I know him," Pietro said.

"How do you guys know him?" Sam asked.

"He came to the facility we were kept in," Pietro explained. "He said he was looking for volunteers for one of his projects. Something Force, I think."

"Project Alpha Force," Fury said. "That's the program that Miss Lewis was entered into. We've recovered more information on her background. Mainly, where she came from before entering the program."

The entire room was focused on Fury.

"Project Alpha Force was a German selective breeding program with an aim to create superpowered individuals based on the characteristics possessed by their parents. The ablest and fittest men and women were taken from their homes in Germany and forced to participate in experimentation that would enhance their naturally-occurring abilities to the point that those abilities could be considered superpowers. Out of hundreds of test subjects, only fifteen pairs survived the first stage. They were then forced to reproduce. When all was said and done, the experiment yielded fifteen infants that were taken into Hydra custody. The parents were disposed of soon after."

Fury paced back in forth in front of the conference table.

"Each infant was assigned a number and a team of personnel tasked with caring for its basic needs. They were all closely monitored for any sign of extraordinary abilities. They found that none of the children showed any signs. One by one, the children were taken from the facility, never to be heard from again. All except infant number thirteen."

"Lia," Natasha breathed.

"So she was not experimented on?" Pietro asked.

"No. Her body chemistry was never altered. She was born that way," Fury replied.

"Then why does she have all of those needle marks in the crook of her elbow?" Wanda wondered.

"From what we've gathered, she was rather rebellious. They would drug her to keep her compliant. That's where all those needle marks came from."

"Where did you get all this from, Fury?" Tony asked.

"We were able to find a correlation in the test subject files you brought back from Germany. We hacked into Hydra's archives to retrieve the project info."

"Hold on, hold on," Clint interjected. "What does that German guy you mentioned at the beginning have to do with all of this?"

"I'm glad you asked, Agent." Fury pulled up a picture of a balding, middle-aged man.

"This is Doctor Friedrich Pohl, head of Project Alpha Force. He oversaw everything that went on during that project. All the information we have on Miss Lewis is eyewitness reports and what I've just relayed to you. If we want to find out more about her, we need him. As of two days ago, he's escaped SHIELD custody. We believe he may be coming after Miss Lewis."

Bucky had sat silently in his chair during the whole conversation. He was still in shock over the fact that Lia had called him "The Asset". However, upon hearing that Lia may be in danger, he snapped out of his trance.

"He's going to have to go through us, first," he said, balling his hands into fists.

The rest of the Avengers voiced their agreement with the metal-armed assassin.

"That won't be a problem," Fury assured them. "We're sending several of you on a mission to his last known location."

"And where is that?" Sam asked.

"Budapest," Fury replied.

Natasha and Clint shared a devious look.

Fury caught wind of their silent conversation. "This mission is nothing like your previous one in Budapest, Agents."

The pair scowled.

Just then, the room was filled with the sound of AC/DC's "Back in Black". Tony removed his phone from his pocket and the music immediately ceased. He raised an eyebrow.

"Capsicle and Spiderling got Tesla all hunky-dory again. They're taking her down to the med bay. She got cut pretty bad on some of that broken glass, apparently."

"Who's going on the mission?" Sam asked, getting back to the topic at hand.

"I'm leaving that up to you. We need at least six members of the team. You leave tomorrow."

And with that, Fury left the room.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: To my lovely Australian reader who requested more of Pietro and Lia's sibling relationship: ask and ye shall receive. :) Enjoy!**

Several hours later, Lia was asleep in her room and Peter had gone home (only after Steve promised to tell Lia to call him when she woke up). The Avengers were sitting once more in the common area, deep in discussion.

Steve, Sam, Bucky, and Natasha sat on one side of the room, while Wanda, Pietro, Tony, and Clint sat on the other.

Tony and Steve were arguing quite loudly about who would be going on the mission, and nobody seemed to be able to get a word in edgewise.

After several failed attempts to add his two-bits, Sam politely raised his hand.

Tony finally noticed him and sighed pointedly. "Put your hand down, Birdman. This isn't third grade."

"I think we may be going about this the wrong way," he pointed out. "We're more concerned about who's leaving than we are about who's staying behind."

"That's true," Steve agreed. "Lia's our top priority right now. Who here would be the most help to her if they stayed behind?"

"Now don't take this the wrong way," Clint began, "But I think it would be a good idea if Bucky stayed. No offense man, but when things get personal you tend to go against your better judgment. Plus, if anyone can keep Lia safe, it's you."

"None taken," Bucky replied. "Judging by the way I feel right now, it definitely isn't a good idea to send me."

"Okay, Frosty's staying behind, then," Tony said. "Who else? There's eight of us, and six are needed."

"I'll stay behind," Natasha volunteered. "If that creep comes after my daughter, you can bet he won't be leaving with all of his limbs." She cracked her knuckles menacingly.

"Is everyone cool with Red and Elsa staying behind, then?" Tony asked.

Everyone murmured their assent.

Tony clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Okay then, that's settled. On to the next item of business. What's our cover story?"

"Cover story?" Pietro asked.

"Well we're not telling Lia about any of this, are we?" Tony asked. "You saw what happened when Eyepatch mentioned that guys name. Think about what might happen if she finds out we're going after him."

"Perhaps we should stretch the truth a little," Wanda suggested. "Tell her where we're going but leave out the part about the German scientist."

"That way, she'll know where we are, but she won't realize what we're doing," Pietro added.

"That… is actually a very good idea," Tony conceded.

Sam yawned and glanced at the clock. It read 12:09 am.

He stood. "I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I'm heading to bed."

One by one, the rest of the Avengers followed suit, heading to their quarters, wondering about what the next few days would entail.

ooOOoo

Pietro opened his eyes and glanced at the clock next to his bed. 3:38 am.

He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. What had awoken him this early in the morning?

Then he heard it: a soft whimpering sound, coming from across the hall.

Pietro stood, grabbing the shirt he'd carelessly thrown onto his floor a few hours prior and putting it on. Quiet as a mouse, he crept out his door and across the hall to Lia's room.

She was sitting up in bed, looking around the room with wide eyes.

He went and sat next to her on the bed, reclining back against the headboard. "What's the matter, _Sestrichka?_ " he asked softly. "Did you have a nightmare?"

She shook her head.

"Then what happened?"

She whispered to him in a very quiet, very scared voice.

"I remember."

He was confused. "Remember what?"

"Everything," she said. "I remember everything."

It suddenly dawned on Pietro what she was talking about.

"You remember?" he asked.

She nodded. A tear slipped down her cheek.

He put an arm around her, pulling her into his side. He rubbed his hand up and down her arm and gave her his other hand. She took it and began tracing patterns onto his palm. Pietro had found that this had a calming effect on her. He would often sit up with her on nights that she'd had nightmares and wait for her to fall asleep again. She would trace patterns and shapes into his palm for hours until she was finally calm enough to sleep once more.

This time, Pietro wasn't sure she would go to sleep at all. He'd never seen her look so terrified, excepting the few minutes he'd witnessed of her panic attack several hours earlier.

"What do you remember, _Sestrichka_?" he asked gently.

She hesitated a moment. "Everything is sort of fuzzy," she admitted. "Sometimes it gets a little clearer, but then my arm hurts and it gets fuzzy again."

"Your arm hurts?" he asked, puzzled.

"I remember it hurting," she replied. "But only when stuff started to seem clearer. It stopped hurting when stuff got fuzzy again."

Pietro remembered Fury's words from earlier about Lia being drugged. Her story seemed to match up with what he'd been told.

"What else do you remember?" he gently pried.

"Bucky… I remember him. I knew him. He wasn't called Bucky back then. He was called the Asset. He wasn't nice like he is now. They made him hurt people."

"Who made him hurt people?"

Lia nestled closer into Pietro's side. "The scientists. They hurt him. They put him in a metal chair that made him scream." She shuddered.

"Did the scientists ever do that to you?" Pietro asked cautiously. He was trying to find out as much information as possible without causing another panic attack.

Lia thought for a moment. "I don't know," she finally replied. "I know they tried to, but I don't know if they ever did."

"Tell me about the scientists. Were they nice or mean?" Pietro queried.

"Most of them were mean. Some of them were okay, but there was only one scientist I liked. Her name was Dr. Lewis. She didn't like what was going on and she tried to get me out, but they got her before she could. She gave me my name. I decided my last name should be Lewis, like hers."

"They got her?" asked Pietro.

Lia nodded, yawning. "She used to visit me every day. One day, she stopped coming. They said she went to another facility, but I know that's not true. Nobody ever left. They either stayed for life or lost their life."

"Did the scientists do anything to you?"

"Yeah. They did all sorts of stuff. They took lots and lots of blood samples, and they made me test my powers on people that didn't do what they asked. If I didn't do what they asked, they would hurt me."

How would they hurt you?" Pietro asked, trying his best to contain his rage at what he was hearing.

She yawned again. "They wouldn't give me food for a whole day. Sometimes they made me sleep outside when it was really cold. It made my lips turn blue. But if they were really mad at me, they would send me to _him_."

Pietro immediately figured out who _him_ was.

"What did he do to you?"

"They have this horrible bed with straps and buckles, and when they put you in it, you can't move, no matter how hard you try. He would put me in it and give me shots." She hid her face in Pietro's shoulder. "They aren't normal shots that keep you healthy like doctors give you. These shots hurt you. They hurt you bad. They burn you on the inside. They make you scream and cry and he just sits and laughs at you while you beg him to stop, to make the pain go away, and he tells you what a wretched child you are and how nobody wants you and you'll never be loved…"

She was hyperventilating and crying into his shoulder now, shaking. Pietro was crying as well, moved to tears by her account. He put his other arm around Lia and pulled her close to him, not wanting to let her go.

"I'm scared, _Bratishka_ ," she admitted through her tears. "I'm scared that he's going to come back and take me away."

"No," Pietro said fiercely. "You're not going anywhere. You're staying right here where you belong, _Sestrichka_. He's going to have to go through me first."

Brother and sister sat together silently on the bed, tears sliding down both of their cheeks until the sun rose.

ooOOoo

"...and if anything looks suspicious, call for backup. Do. Not. Engage. This man is dangerous. We don't know what kind of intel he has on us or on you two. Do you hear me, agents?"

Nick Fury was briefing Agents Romanoff and Barnes on the new safety protocols that were to be implemented while the other Avengers were away. They were standing in the hangar, waiting for the Quinjet to finish fueling.

Bucky nodded. "Don't engage unless absolutely necessary. I understand."

"Lia's safety is our top priority, Commander. We'll have her out of here at the first sign of trouble," Natasha said coolly. After seeing Fury's cold indifference to Lia's panic attack the day before, she had lost some of her respect for the man.

Fury nodded his head and turned to walk away.

On the other side of the hangar, Pietro and Lia entered the hangar.

"I still don't understand why almost all of you need to go," she persisted. "Every other time you've had a recon mission, only two or three of you go at the most."

"This is a special mission," he explained. "They want to make sure that there are enough of us to cover all the bases."

She looked down at her shoes. "I wish you could stay," she said softly.

He pulled her into a hug. "So do I, _Sestrichka_. But unfortunately, what we wish for and what actually happens are more often than not two completely different things."

"Stay safe, _Bratishka_. Come back to me in one piece, okay?" she lightly teased.

He sighed in mock exasperation. "You get shot to pieces one time and nobody ever lets you live it down…"

"Thank goodness you heal as fast as you run, Speedy." Tony walked over to them from where the jet was. He pointed toward it. "Jet's done fueling. You ready to go?"

Pietro glanced over at Lia. "As I'll ever be," he replied.

Lia went and gave the billionaire a hug. He reciprocated it.

"Stay safe, Tesla. Try not to get into too much trouble. And don't go in my lab."

"Why not?" she asked.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I may have been experimenting with increased heat protection for my suit and broken a few thermometers in the process… I put DUM-E in charge of cleaning it up, but knowing him it's gonna take a few days."

Pietro just shook his head at the man. He turned to board the jet, but not before waving back at Lia one last time.

The rest of the Avengers filed into the hangar, overnight bags in tow. Lia made sure to hug every individual and tell them all to stay safe before they boarded. She didn't understand why they all looked so serious. Recon missions weren't that bad, were they?

She went and stood next to Natasha and Bucky, waiting for the jet to take off.

"Why does everyone look so serious?" she asked Bucky. "It's just recon, isn't it?"

He nodded, not knowing what Pietro had told her but deciding in the moment to go along with it. "Yeah. Just recon."

They couldn't say anything more; the jet engines were much too loud. Even standing all the way on the other side of the hangar with her ears plugged, Lia still couldn't hear anything but the roar of the Quinjet taking off. She watched it take off into the cloudless blue sky, silently praying that everybody would make it back safely.

"You okay, Rosie?" Bucky asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. I just don't like it when you guys have to leave."

"We don't like it much either," Natasha pointed out. "We miss you just as much as you miss us."

"I guess it's not all bad, though. I get to hang out with my mom and my big brother for a few days. And Peter, if he still wants to come back after what happened yesterday." She frowned.

Bucky snapped his fingers. The sound echoed through the hangar. "That reminds me. Steve told me that Peter wanted you to call him when you woke up. He was pretty worried about you last night when he left."

"You mean I didn't scare him?" she asked, hopeful.

"Scare him?" Natasha chuckled. " I've never seen the kid so calm. As soon as he figured out what was happening he jumped right in and calmed you down. Didn't even flinch."

"Really?"

"You don't remember?" she asked.

"I remember setting the table last night, then panicking at something, and then everything is sort of fuzzy until early this morning," Lia replied, starting the long walk to the other end of the hangar where the exit was.

"What happened this morning?" Bucky asked.

"I woke up really early and I... remembered," Lia answered hesitantly.

"Remembered what?" He wondered.

She was silent for a moment before answering. "Everything."

Bucky stood stock still. "Wait…" he said slowly. "You remember… everything? All of it?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I think so. Most of it is kinda fuzzy, but it's all there now, at least."

They were distracted from their conversation by a loud banging noise not too far from them. All three turned back to look at what had caused the disruption.

A young man wearing coveralls stood next to a few overturned shipping crates. He grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry. Wasn't paying attention," he said.

"Are you hurt?" Lia asked, concerned.

The man waved her off with a smile. "Nah. I'm fine."

Lia looked at Bucky and Natasha and shrugged once more before heading through the hangar's exit and making her way back to the compound with them in tow.

ooOOoo

Dr. Pohl hunched over and paced the floor, impatiently waiting. His steel-toed boots made a clicking sound each time they touched the linoleum floor. He mumbled angrily in German under his breath.

Then, one of his assistant's rushed into the room. "Dr. Pohl, Dr. Pohl!" he shouted, panting for breath. He had a large manila envelope in his hand

Dr. Pohl stood up to his full intimidating height. "Yes, Gunter?"

"I have the report you requested," the man said in a coarse German accent.

"Excellent. You may leave." Dr. Pohl dismissed the man with a wave of his hand.

As soon as he heard the door click, Dr. Pohl hungrily ripped open the envelope to retrieve the contents inside. As he read through the report, his almost perpetual frown was replaced with a wicked looking grin.

"Finally. Everything is going according to plan. I have you right where I want you, _Dreizehn_. A few more days and you'll be mine."

 **A/N:** ** _Dreizehn_** **means thirteen in German. Just so you know.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: *Nervously* Hey, guys... So um, I wrote this chapter... and I don't know how you all are going to take it... so I'm going to go and lock myself in Tony's lab for a bit until this all blows over... I'll bet DUM-E's cleaned up the thermometer mess by now, right?**

Lia could not for the life of her figure out what was going on. Nobody would leave her alone for more than five minutes at a time. She was constantly being followed by Natasha, Bucky, or one of the many agents that had been hired to keep the trio safe while the rest of the Avengers were gone. She was sure something was up; she just didn't know what.

Peter came to visit again the day after the Avengers left. Bucky pulled him aside as soon as he arrived and explained the situation to him. He listened intently, understanding the magnitude of what was going on, and agreed to keep things quiet.

He was overjoyed to see that Lia was doing much better than she was the last time he'd been there. She had texted him the day before to tell him she was feeling better, but Peter knew he wouldn't fully stop worrying about her until he saw her again face to face.

As soon as he saw her, he gave her a big hug. "Hey, Butterfly," he said, using the pet name he'd given her a week or so before.

"Hey, Peter," she replied, hugging him back.

"Glad to see you doing better. You had me worried."

"I'm sorry. I feel bad for scaring you and everyone else."

He pulled back so he could see her face. "Don't ever apologize for stuff like this. You couldn't have predicted that something like that was going to happen. It wasn't your fault, anyway."

She still looked unsure. "Did I scare you?"

"Not at all," he reassured her. "I've helped my aunt work through panic attacks before. They don't scare me."

She sighed in relief. "Okay, good. I was worried you wouldn't want to come back after that."

He smiled at her. "Trust me, Lia. It'll take a lot more than that to keep me from coming to see you."

She smiled widely. "Thanks for helping me, by the way."

"Hey, I'm your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. Helping people is what I do." He puffed out his chest a bit, hoping to make Lia laugh.

It worked. Lia started giggling almost uncontrollably at Peter.

That's when he knew that she'd be alright.

ooOOoo

Clint peered over the edge of the rooftop at the warehouse below. None of the lights were on; for all intents and purposes, the place seemed abandoned. He put a finger to his ear.

"Guys, are we sure this is the right spot? I don't think anyone's home."

" _Clint's right,"_ Sam said over the comlink. _This place looks completely abandoned."_

" _It may appear to abandoned, but looks can be deceiving. We should still check it out, just to be completely sure,"_ Cap replied. " _Pietro, have you seen any guards at all?"_

The speedster was running around the warehouse, trying to pinpoint the best way inside. It was hard to tell what he was saying over the sound of wind rushing past him.

" _No guards… found entrance…"_

" _Kid, will you please slow down?"_ Tony interjected. " _None of us can understand a word you're saying."_

The whooshing sound on the other side of the comlink stopped abruptly. Pietro could be heard panting for breath.

" _I said, there are no guards, I found an entrance…"_ he said between breaths.

"Where's the entrance?" Clint asked.

" _On the south side of the building."_

" _Wanda, do you detect any human presence inside the warehouse?"_ Steve asked.

" _I don't know. There might be, but I won't be able to tell for sure until I get inside,"_ she answered.

Clint was already at the south entrance where Pietro stood, waiting.

"I cannot wait to get inside and punch someone in the face," he spat, cracking his knuckles.

"What's got you so riled up?" Clint asked.

Pietro looked incredulous. "Do you not know what that horrible man did to Lia?"

"I know he did something bad, judging by her reaction to his name being said, but I don't know exactly what," Clint replied.

Pietro's incredulous look shifted into a murderous glare. "He strapped her down so she couldn't move and injected her with something that caused her excruciating pain. Then, he would sit and laugh while she screamed…"

Clint just stood there in shocked silence.

"That is why I am here: to make sure that _dog_ gets what he deserves."

Tony landed in front of Clint. Seeing his shocked expression, he waved an armored hand in front of his face.

"You alright there, Legolas? You're zoning out on us."

Pietro related the story he had just told Clint to Tony. he reacted much the same way.

One by one, the rest of the Avengers arrived at the south entrance and, one by one, they heard Pietro's horrendous account. It added a new sense of urgency to the group; the sooner they caught the creep, the better.

Once he'd recovered from the shock, Steve took charge. "Alright. Tony, you and I will go inside first and scout ahead. Pietro, Wanda, and Clint, you'll all come in after us. Sam, I need you to be our eyes in the sky."

"Roger that. Punch that scumbag in the face for me, will ya?" he requested before spreading his wings out and taking off into the skies.

"Clint, as soon as you're inside, find high ground and stake out the place," Steve instructed.

"You got it," he replied.

"You ready, Tony?" Steve asked.

"Born ready," he answered.

"Okay. Let's go. The rest of you, wait for my signal before heading in."

ooOOoo

Peter, Natasha, Bucky, and Lia were sprawled out on the floor of the common area, a Monopoly board between the four of them.

Lia took the first turn, rolling the dice. She moved her thimble six spaces, landing on Oriental Avenue. She handed Bucky $100 of monopoly money and he handed her the property deed.

"I still don't understand why you guys wanted to play with Peter and I," she started.

"I just thought that, with it being just the three of us for a few days, it might be fun to do some stuff together," Natasha replied nonchalantly, tossing the dice onto the game board. She moved her dog nine spaces to Connecticut Avenue, handing Bucky money for the property without breaking eye contact with her daughter.

Lia didn't look convinced in the slightest. "But you're always training by now. You never skip a session. And I know for a fact that Bucky detests Monopoly."

Bucky was moving his battleship seven spaces to a Chance square. He pulled a card from the pile, scowling at it. "'Pay poor tax of fifteen dollars'. Gosh I hate this game."

"You see?" Lia said, pointing at him. "Back me up, Peter."

Peter rolled the dice and moved his top hat five spaces to Reading Railroad, paying Bucky $200 dollars for it. "I don't think there's anything wrong with having them play with us," he said, handing her the dice. "Your turn."

"No," Lia said, pocketing the dice. "Something is up. All three of you guys have been acting really odd ever since everyone else left. Is there something you aren't telling me?"

She stared each person in the eye, never once breaking eye contact. "Don't lie to me, guys."

When she came to Peter, she stared long and hard at him. He squirmed uncomfortably under her gaze.

"Peter," she said slowly. "Is there something you aren't telling me?"

"N-no," he stammered out.

Her eyes narrowed. "Peter Benjamin Parker, if you're lying to me-"

"I-I'm not! I swear!" He said.

Her face fell. "You are lying to me. You never stutter when you're with me unless you're lying."

None of them noticed the cloud cover forming above their heads.

"Lia-" Peter started.

"Don't 'Lia' me! Why are you lying to me? What is going on?"

I… can't tell you," he replied, seeing the looks on Bucky and Natasha's faces.

"Do you not trust me?" Lia asked quietly.

Peter hurried to shoot down her question. "No, no, of course I trust you! It's just that... Well…"

"We told him not to tell you!" Bucky intervened, growing angry. He wasn't going to let Peter take the fall for what was going on.

Lia glared at him. "Told him not to tell me what?"

The cloud cover above their heads grew darker. A rumbling sound was heard.

Natasha jumped in. "Lia, you have to trust us. We're doing what we're doing to keep you safe."

"Safe from what? Tell me!" she yelled.

"We're not going to tell you!" Bucky shouted back at her.

"Why not?!"

"Because if we do you'll freak out!" He screamed.

The heavens opened above them. Rain poured down into the living room, soaking them all where they stood.

"I won't freak out! I can handle it!" She shouted at him, still dry. Her powers never seemed to affect her, only those around her.

"No, you can't!" he yelled, rain running through the grooves of his metal arm.

"Yes, I can!"

No you can't! What makes you think you can handle what's going on if you can't even handle being in the same room as Nick Fury?!"

A loud clap of thunder sounded right above Bucky's head. He didn't even flinch, still glaring at her.

"How dare you," she said in a low voice.

"How dare I? How dare I what? How dare I bring up the fact that you're afraid of a bald man with an eyepatch?!" There was no going back from this now.

Tears formed at the edge of her eyes. "James Buchanan Barnes, I _hate_ you!" she screamed.

The loudest clap of thunder any of them had ever heard sounded above them, making them all jump and look behind them. When they turned back, Lia was gone.

ooOOoo

" _Clint, what do you see?"_

"Not much, Cap. Just shipping containers and a few empty workspaces. Nothing out of the ordinary."

" _Keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you see anything suspicious. This warehouse looks abandoned right now, but we've found signs of recent human habitation."_

"Copy that, Cap."

Clint had his bow out, arrow at the ready, in case anything should happen. He scanned the area, looking carefully for any signs of movement or activity.

" _Guys."_ Pietro's voice cut through. _I found something."_ His normally cheerful voice was serious and full of dread.

" _What is it?"_ Steve asked.

" _You need to see for yourself,"_ he said. " _I'm not sure what to think of it."_

"Where are you, kid?" Clint asked, replacing his bow on his back.

" _In one of the offices. The name on the door says 'Avengers'."_

"I'm on my way. Steve, Tony, you keep searching. I'll go take a look."

" _Let us know what you find, Katniss. I'm rather curious myself,"_ Tony requested.

Clint made his way down from his perch in the rafters of the warehouse and headed toward the small offices lining the left wall.

Pietro met him in front of one of them. "You need to see this," he said, pushing the door to the office open.

The office was empty, save for six chairs placed in a semicircle around an old television set. The remote for the TV was sitting on one of the chairs. A post-it note was stuck to it.

Clint picked up the remote, reading the note. "Press Play…"

He put a finger to his ear. "Cap, whoever was here before was expecting us. They left us a message. You're going to want to see this. Tony, Wanda, Sam, you guys come too."

" _Roger that,"_ Sam replied, the rush of the wind making it hard to hear him through the comlink.

" _We're on our way,"_ Cap said.

Wanda walked through the open door. Her eyes widened at the sight. She began muttering in Sokovian.

"What's she saying?" Clint quietly asked Pietro.

"Nothing that should be repeated out loud," Pietro answered. He walked over and put an arm around his twin sister.

Tony and Steve walked in soon after.

Tony's eyes narrowed. "They were expecting us…" he said darkly.

Steve cast his eyes around the room. "Six chairs…" he muttered. "And six of us… how did they know that six of us would be coming?"

"Do you think we have a mole somewhere?" Clint asked, handing the remote control to Steve.

"Possibly… but let's not jump to conclusions just yet."

Sam let out a low whistle when he came in. "This doesn't look good, guys…"

"Yeah, we've noticed," Pietro replied sarcastically. Clint put a hand on the speedster's shoulder, causing him to go silent.

Steve sat down on one of the six chairs, gesturing for the others to take a seat as well. When everyone was seated, he took a deep breath.

"Well, here goes nothing."

Then he pressed play.

ooOOoo

As soon as the words left his mouth, Bucky regretted it. He knew he had a crossed a line by bringing up Fury. Peter was staring at him in shock. Natasha, on the other hand, looked like she wanted to murder him.

When Lia screamed that she hated him, it was like taking a knife to the stomach. He couldn't bear to face her or the others any longer, so he walked off in the opposite direction, leaving Peter and Natasha to deal with the torrential downpour in the living room.

Peter still hadn't said anything. Natasha put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's not your fault," she said. "Just give her some time to calm down. She'll come around."

The rain was had started to slow as soon as Lia left the room. It was barely drizzling now. Natasha cast her eyes around the room and sighed.

"At least Tony had the good sense to waterproof this part of the compound," she said. "The water won't damage the floor or the walls. He replaced all of the upholstered furniture with water-resistant leather. And the rug is washable."

Peter looked down at their Monopoly game. "I don't think the game is waterproof, though," he pointed out.

"You know where the towels are?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Grab as many as you can carry. I'm going to go and find a mop."

While Peter and Natasha worked to clean up the mess, Bucky was outside, wandering around the grounds. He felt horrible for making Lia cry like that. Big brothers were supposed to fix their little sisters problems, not cause them. He wasn't even sure why he had blown up like that. He'd never gotten mad at Lia before.

He looked up and found himself outside the hangar. Sighing, he walked inside. Maybe watching other people's mindless work for a little while would help him clear his head enough to be able to apologize.

He sat down on an unused shipping container and watched the workers scurry around the large building. There were a couple other Quinjets still there and various small vehicles as well. Some of the workers were performing maintenance on one of the Quinjets. Every so often a worker would run down the ramp of the jet and disappear for a few minutes, only to return with some obscure tool that the repairman needed inside.

"Hey," a voice called out.

Bucky turned around to see the worker that had dropped the shipping container the other day.

"You alright?" he asked.

"I'd kinda like to be left alone if you don't mind," Bucky replied, annoyed.

"Yeah, I understand. I just have a message to deliver to you," he said.

Bucky raised an eyebrow. "A message? From who?"

He grinned wickedly. "Dr. Pohl. _Winter Soldat aktivieren_!"

Then everything went black.

ooOOoo

As soon as Steve pressed play, the face of a balding, middle-aged man appeared on the screen.

" _Willkommen,_ Avengers," he said in a thick German accent. "My name is Doctor Friedrich Pohl. Perhaps you've heard of me."

"Yeah, we've heard of you all right, you lying, mangy-"

The rest of the Avengers shushed Pietro.

"I suppose you are wondering what is going on," Dr. Pohl continued. "Well you see, you have something of mine, and I would very much like it back. I believe you now know the story of Experiment _Nummer Dreizehn."_

"What's that mean?" Wanda asked.

Steve looked angry. "It's German. It means 'number thirteen.'"

Dr. Pohl continued to speak over the Avengers. " _Dreizehn_ is a vital part of my operation and my greatest achievement thus far. I have lured you here to the great city of Budapest so that I may retrieve her once more."

The door to the office locked behind them unexpectedly, trapping them inside. Steve stood immediately and went to the door, kicking the lock as hard as he could. It didn't even dent the door.

"I wasn't going to try and take her with all of you there. One doesn't rob a house with all the residents still inside. Now that you are all out of the way, I can put the rest of my plan into motion. By the time you receive this message, _Dreizehn_ will soon be in my possession once more."

The camera cut from the doctor to a shot of the compound's hangar. There was no sound, but Bucky could clearly be seen sitting on one of the shipping containers. A man in coveralls came over and spoke to him for a second. Suddenly, Bucky keeled over, grabbing his head. He fell off the shipping container onto the ground. The man knelt down and whispered something in his ear. Bucky stopped and stood up, ramrod straight. His face was emotionless. He had once again become the Winter Soldier.

The doctor came on screen once more. "As you can see, I have already eliminated the Winter Soldier. All that is left is to rid this place of the Black Widow and _Dreizehn_ will be mine for the taking."

"Tony!" Steve shouted. "Try and shoot the door!"

Tony did as he was told, redirecting all power to his hand repulsors and firing a loud blast at the door. It didn't leave a single mark.

"Of course, I couldn't take any chances of you escaping. The door and walls of the room you are in are made of a special vibranium alloy my inferiors were able to cook up for me. Do not try and call for help or warn your colleagues; the walls of your prison are too thick to send or receive any signals. I'm afraid there is not enough air in that room for you all to last more than an hour. Say _Auf Wiedersehen_ to your precious protege, Avengers. She will soon be mine!" Doctor Pohl let out a spine-tingling maniacal laugh.

Then the screen went blank.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: If you guys weren't big fans of what happened in the last chapter, then... well... this one may push your buttons. So will the fact that you won't be getting another chapter for a while because I'm going** **on vacation this week. So enjoy this chapter. It's all you're getting. Read and review. Reviews make my day, guys. I read them all and screenshot my favorites. :)**

 **Oh, and one more thing. I've updated a few of my one-shots with more details and dialogue, so make sure to check those out.**

 **WARNING: This chapter contains *spoiler* child abduction and quite a bit of death as well. Just so you're aware.**

Lia buried her face in her pillow, trying to muffle the sound of her crying. She held her thick, grey blanket to her chest. The blanket had been her only source of comfort throughout her years of torture in the Hydra facility. Everybody thought she'd want to get rid of it, but in reality, it was one of her most prized possessions.

She felt horrible for yelling at Bucky like that, and for accusing Peter of lying to her. He'd never want to stay friends with her now. She didn't really hate Bucky. She hated what he had done, but she didn't hate him. Now, he may never forgive her either.

There was a knock at her door.

"Lia?" It was Peter's voice. "Can Natasha and I come in?"

She took a few deep, shuddering breaths before answering. "Is Bucky with you?"

"No." It was Natasha's voice this time. "He left to calm down. It's just Peter and me."

Lia sniffed. "Okay."

The door to her bedroom opened, revealing the two, both of which were wearing different clothes and were sporting very wet hairdos. When Lia saw their hair, she buried her face back in her pillow again and cried.

Natasha came and sat next to her on the bed. She stroked her hair, quietly shushing her. "It's okay," she said. "You're not in any trouble. We're not mad at you."

She lifted her head a bit so that one eye was looking at Natasha. Behind the assassin, she saw Peter sitting on the beanbag chair she used for reading.

"I'm s-sorry," she said shakily. "I d-didn't mean to m-make it r-rain…"

"It's okay. We know you can't help it," Nat said.

Lia glanced over at Peter. He was watching her with concern in his eyes. "I'm s-sorry for accusing you, P-Peter."

He waved her off. "It's no big deal," he replied.

"Yes it is!" she persisted. "I wasn't n-nice to you at all and I f-feel really b-bad about it."

He stood from her beanbag chair and sat on the side of the bed not currently occupied by Natasha.

"Don't feel bad," Nat said. "You have every right to get mad at us. We are keeping secrets from you, but the only reason we haven't told you what's going on is because we care about you too much to worry you. When all is said and done, I'll tell you everything, I promise."

There was a loud crash outside of Lia's bedroom. Natasha frowned. "I'm going to go see what that was. I'll be right back." She stood and left the room.

The hairs on Peter's arms stood straight up. He looked around the room in alarm.

"Lia," he said slowly, "Get under the bed and don't make a sound."

Lia had never heard Peter use that tone before. He was very serious and completely on edge, like something bad was about to happen. She did as she was told, sliding off her bed and rolling underneath it.

Seconds later, the Winter Soldier crashed through her door, leaving a gaping hole. He went straight for Peter, lifting him up by the collar of his shirt and tossing him through the glass window of her third-story bedroom.

Lia covered her mouth, desperately trying to hold back a scream. She was shaking uncontrollably with fear. She had seen Bucky in Winter Soldier mode before, long ago, but she'd never seen him in action. She knew what he was capable of; he could kill her blindfolded and glued in place with one hand tied behind his back.

From where she was at, she could only see his shoes. He stomped around her room, forcefully opening her closet door and pushing the bathroom door open so hard it slammed against the wall inside, making a hole. She kept a hand over her mouth to muffle her breathing, her mounting fear growing by the second. She watched his feet come closer, stopping right in front of her face. He stood still for a moment. Everything was completely silent…

Then his face was right in front of hers. She screamed loudly. His metal hand reached under the bed and dragged her out from under it, throwing her over his shoulder with ease.

She struggled as hard as she could, hitting and kicking him, all the while screaming bloody murder to try and attract attention. She saw Natasha lying on the floor unconscious, bruises beginning to form on her neck.

That's when she knew she was in trouble.

ooOOoo

The rest of the Avengers weren't doing much better. Pietro and Wanda were talking quietly in the corner, Sam and Steve were discussing their options, Tony was working with FRIDAY to try and get a signal out, and Clint was desperately trying to get the group's attention.

"Guys…" he said.

"...or we could try wedging something between the door and the frame," Sam suggested.

"No, that won't work. This room is airtight. There isn't even a space to wedge something into," Steve replied, frustrated.

"Guys…" Clint said a little louder.

"I can't get a signal out," Tony said. "The walls are too thick. By the time SHIELD realizes that something's wrong, we'll all be long gone."

"Lia is out there with that crazed maniac and the Winter Soldier! We can't just give up!" Pietro yelled. Wanda placed a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down.

Tony ran a hand through his hair, looking down at the arm of his suit. "FRIDAY, what's the oxygen level in this room?"

" _The current oxygen level of this room is 65%,_ " the AI responded.

"Guys!" Clint almost yelled.

"When that percentage hits zero, we're dead," Tony pointed out.

"Oh, really? I had no idea," Pietro replied sarcastically.

"We're all very much aware of that fact, Tony," Sam said.

"Is it just me, or does the air seem like it's starting to get thinner?" Wanda asked.

Clint was fed up with yelling. Instead, he drew a sonic arrow from his quiver and shot it at the door. The minute it made contact, it let out a loud, high pitched squealing sound, quickly getting everyone's attention.

Clint retrieved the arrow, silencing it. "Will you all stop bickering?!" he shouted. "Arguing will get us absolutely nowhere. There is an easy solution to our problem."

"Well, what are you waiting for, an invitation? Tell us!" Tony said.

"I've got one word for you all." He looked toward the ceiling and shouted as loud as he could.

"HEIMDALL!"

There was a loud bang and a burst of light, pushing everybody back against the walls. When the light dimmed, there was another person in the room with them.

"Greetings, comrades!" Thor shouted cheerfully. "Why have you summoned me this fine day?"

Tony looked at Clint. "This is your 'easy solution'?" he asked, using air quotes around the words. "All you've done is brought another person into the room to use up the air faster!"

Thor looked confused. "What is the matter with the air?" He took a deep breath, eliciting angry stares from several of the rooms other occupants.

Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose. "How long can you hold your breath, Goldilocks?"

"I can hold my breath for quite a long period of time," he replied proudly.

"Good. Hold your breath and don't breath until we tell you to."

Thor took another deep breath, holding the air in his lungs instead of exhaling as he had before.

Tony turned back to Clint. "Good. That's settled. Now, let's get back to why you thought this was a good idea."

Tony's armor let out a beeping sound, followed by the sound of FRIDAY's voice.

" _Sir, oxygen levels have reached 50%. I suggest you move to another location."_

"Well why didn't I think of that?" he replied sarcastically. "FRIDAY, how long before we pass out due to lack of oxygen?"

" _You most likely will pass out when the oxygen level reaches 25%. This will occur in fifteen minutes."_

"Lovely. Just lovely. Why Legolas, why would you summon Point Break to come and use up all of our oxygen?" Tony asked in a slightly manic tone of voice.

Clint waited patiently for Tony to stop ranting before he responded. "Think about it, Tony. How did Thor get here?"

Tony blinked. "In a swirling whirlpool of death?"

"Bifrost. He got here by Bifrost. Now, who's to say we can't get out the same way he got in?" Clint asked.

"Clint," Sam said, getting the archers attention. He pointed toward the Norse God.

Thor's face was purple. His eyes were bulging out of his head. He looked like he might pass out.

"Thor! Breathe, buddy! Take a breath!" Clint said.

Thor took a big breath, his face returning to its normal color. He grinned.

"You see? I told you I could hold my breath quite a while!" He exclaimed proudly.

Clint patted him on the back. "That's great, buddy. Listen, is there any way you can get us out of here via the Bifrost?"

Thor nodded. "Aye. Heimdall can transport us wherever we are needed." He paused. "Where exactly are we needed?"

"The compound," Pietro immediately replied, jumping up from where he was sitting on the floor. "Lia is there with the Winter Soldier."

"Who is this 'Lia' you speak of?"

"She's a member of the Avengers family. You haven't met her yet. She's fifteen," Sam explained.

Thor nodded thoughtfully. "I see. I wish to meet Lady Lia."

"You can meet her, as soon as this situation has been resolved. Right now, our biggest concern is getting out of here before the air runs out," Steve reminded him.

Clint was watching Tony, who was staring the wall and giggling occasionally. "Some of us are handling the lack of oxygen better than others," he pointed out.

"Yeah, we should probably get Tony out of here sooner rather than later," Sam agreed. He went over and helped the billionaire to his feet.

"I must warn you. Traveling by Bifrost can be disconcerting to one who is not expecting it. It's a different experience for mortals."

"Just get us out of here, please. It's getting hard to breathe," Wanda said.

"Beam us up, Scotty!" Tony said with a giggle.

Thor raised his hammer above his head. "Heimdall! Open the Bifrost!"

There was another flash of light, and the room was empty once more.

ooOOoo

Lia screamed and screamed until her throat was sore, yet nobody came to her aid. It wasn't until the Winter Soldier carried her outside that she found out why.

The ground was littered with the bodies of SHIELD agents and scientists that had tried to stop him. Lia looked all around, absolutely horrified. She cried bitterly, out of fear for herself, for Peter, for Natasha, and even for Bucky. She wasn't blaming him for any of this; he wasn't the one doing it. The Winter Soldier was the one to blame.

He carried her all the way to the hangar, walking up the ramp of the spare Quinjet. He sat her down on one of the benches in the back and strapped her in tight, breaking the seat belt lock so she couldn't escape.

There were bodies all around here, too. Only one had been spared: the man who had tipped over the shipping container a few days prior.

She called out to him. "Help! I'm being kidnapped by the Winter Soldier! You have to get help!" she screamed hoarsely.

The man just laughed. "I think I'll stay right where I am if you don't mind," he replied in a German accent.

Lia was confused for a moment before she quickly realized what was going on.

"You," she said. "It was you. You're the one who caused all this! Who are you? What do you want with me?"

He grinned evilly at her. "Me? My name is Oskar, and I don't want anything from you. Dr. Pohl, on the other hand…"

She grew deathly pale. "No…" she whispered. "Please, please, no… don't take me to him… please…"

"I'm afraid it's too late for that, _fraulein_ ," he said, stepping aboard. "Dr. Pohl is expecting you. Don't you think he'll be pleased when his most prized test subject is returned to him? He has so many new treatments to try…"

The ramp rose up, sealing off the jet's exit and silencing the sounds of Oskar's maniacal laughter and Lia's terrified cries.

ooOOoo

As soon as Natasha exited Lia's room she was face to face with Bucky, but she could tell by the dark glint in his eyes that he was no longer in charge. Before she could even open her mouth to tell Lia and Peter to run, his hand was on her neck and she had surrendered to the darkness that enveloped her almost immediately afterward.

It wasn't until a little while later that she was able to regain consciousness. She heard someone talking to her.

"Natasha? Nat, can you hear me?" the voice asked.

Natasha groaned. She opened her eyes to see her favorite archer with a concerned look on his face.

"Clint?" she asked groggily. Wasn't he supposed to be in Budapest right now?

"Easy there, Nat. Take it slow," he said.

Slowly but surely, Natasha worked herself into a sitting position against the wall. She saw the rest of the Avengers standing and sitting around the kitchen table, discussing something. Pietro didn't seem to be there, though. She caught sight of a certain Norse God sticking a few pop tarts in the toaster.

"Thor?" she asked.

He waved. "Hello, Lady Natasha. How are you feeling?"

She just shook her head and grimaced, immediately regretting the movement. She leaned back, trying to fight off a massive headache that was threatening to overtake her.

Clint handed her some ibuprofen and a water bottle. She took them gratefully, swallowing both pills at the same time.

"What happened, Nat?" Clint asked.

Natasha's eyes grew wide as she began to remember what had transpired mere hours before.

"Bucky! He was here! He isn't Bucky anymore, he's-"

"The Winter Soldier," Clint finished for her. "We know. That's why we're here."

Natasha looked confused. "How do you know that?"

"It's a very long story that we don't have time to get into. Where are Lia and Peter? We can't find either of them."

Natasha paled. "She's not here?"

Before Clint could reply, Pietro came skidding to a halt in the kitchen, panting desperately for breath. He looked distraught. Wanda immediately stood and went to him, putting a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down enough to talk.

The Bifrost had dropped the Avengers off right in front of the compound. None of them had thought to check the back path leading to the hangar. When none of them could find Lia or Peter inside the compound, they sent Pietro to search the grounds.

And boy, did Pietro have a story to tell.

"One of the Quinjets is missing from the hangar," he said seriously, "and there are bodies everywhere. On the lawn, in the medical facility, in the hangar… everywhere you look, somebody is lying there dead!"

Without another word, everybody rushed outside to verify Pietro's account. Clint stayed behind to make sure Natasha was alright.

They were all speechless at the sheer mass of casualties that had occurred. The body count was innumerable.

Steve was the first to speak. "I'm… I'm going to go call Fury…" he said, completely in shock.

He left without another word.

Clint turned to Pietro. "What was that you said about a Quinjet missing from the hangar?" he asked

"There's only one in there! There's supposed to be two since we took the third one to get to Budapest."

He led them into the hangar to prove it. "See? It's gone!"

Tony (now recovered from his oxygen-deprived state) began questioning FRIDAY about the Quinjet's disappearance.

"FRIDAY, where is Quinjet 2?"

 _Quinjet 2's location is currently unknown. GPS tracking has been deactivated."_

"Well reactivate it then!" he said frustratedly.

 _"GPS tracking has been remotely deactivated. I cannot reactivate it from here."_

"Fine. Whatever. Show me the security footage in the hangar for the last two hours. And speed it up, I don't wanna be here all day."

A holographic screen rose out of the armor on Tony's forearm. Security footage began to play, rapidly speeding up to reduce time.

"There!" Tony shouted. "Slow it down to normal speed."

There, on the screen, was the Winter Soldier, carrying Lia over his shoulder into the second Quinjet. A man followed after them. It was the same man they saw on the security footage in Budapest.

Wanda looked horrified. "He took her…"

Pietro put an arm around his sister. "We'll get her back. Don't worry."

Tony put his arm down, causing the screen to disappear. "Well, that explains where Tesla went. But where's Spiderling?"

"Back in Black" by AC/DC started to play. Tony sighed. "Really? Who's texting me right now? You literally picked the worst time to-"

He stopped when he saw the contact info.

He opened the message, revealing three words.

track my phone

"FRIDAY, track the phone that this text was sent from," Tony requested.

" _Of course, sir. The device is currently 35,000 feet in the air over the Atlantic Ocean and is moving at 650 miles per hour."_

"He stowed away…" Pietro said in realization.

"The kid has guts, that's for sure," Sam said.

Steve came back outside, phone in hand. "Fury is sending some people to take care of the situation here."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

After a minute or so, Sam started bringing Steve up to speed on the most recent development.

"The Winter Soldier and that guy from the footage in Budapest kidnapped Lia and took her away in one of the other Quinjets. Unfortunately, we can't track it. We can, however, track Peter's phone. He stowed away."

"Peter stowed away on the Quinjet with Lia?" Steve asked. He shook his head. "That kid's got moxie, let me tell ya."

Clint and Natasha were making their way over to the group and heard Sam talking to Steve.

Natasha was silent for a moment. Then she did something nobody had ever seen her do.

Natasha Romanoff started to cry.

It wasn't much, just a couple of tears running down her cheek. But they served their purpose in conveying how torn apart she was inside.

"It's my fault," she said quietly. "If I had just stayed in the room with her instead of leaving…"

Clint put an arm around her. "Nobody could have prevented this, Nat. Not even you. The Winter Soldier would have taken you out one way or another. Just be glad Peter's with her. He'll keep them from doing any irreparable harm."

She quickly swiped at the few tears that dared leak from her eyes, composing herself back into the emotionless assassin everybody knew her as. She stood straight and tall.

"So what are we waiting for, then? Let's go. We don't want to be too far behind them, do we?"

The rest of the group murmured their assent. Natasha balled her fists.

"Okay, then. Let's go get my daughter."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Man... you guys are gonna hate me after you read this...**

 **Read and review! I would say enjoy, but honestly, this chapter isn't very enjoyable...**

As soon as the Winter Soldier tossed him out the window, Peter shot a stream of web fluid to the wall to prevent himself from falling. The fall wouldn't have killed him (he was Spiderman, after all), but it would have put him out of commission for a while. He climbed the wall as fast as his legs would allow back to the window, peering inside at an angle he wouldn't be visible from.

The Winter Soldier was searching Lia's room, trying to find her hiding spot. It didn't take him long to locate her and pull her out from under the bed. He tossed her over his shoulder with ease and carried her out of the room while she screamed as loud as she possibly could.

Peter was about to climb through the window and follow them, but he stopped himself. He couldn't take on the Winter Soldier; he may be strong, but he wasn't nearly skilled enough. He'd be killed if he tried. Instead, he followed their route, watching them through the windows. He was so focused, he didn't even notice the large number of bodies scattered throughout the grounds.

When they exited the building, he jumped off the wall, landing soundlessly on the grass below, and began following them from a distance. When he saw they were heading toward the hangar, he ran around the other side of it and entered the back way.

A man was in there, punching in coordinates at the base station that was used for tracking the Quinjets while they were in use. Peter immediately figured out what was happening. The man at the base station was going to kidnap Lia using the Winter Soldier and take her back to Dr. Pohl.

When the Winter Soldier entered the hangar with Lia in tow, the man turned away from the base station for a minute. Peter made a split second decision: he ran up the ramp of the Quinjet and slid under the grated floor. This area was normally used to hold supplies and gear for whatever mission the Avengers were going on. He would be able to see what was going on, but they wouldn't be able to see him unless they looked very closely at the specific area he was in.

The Winter Soldier came aboard and sat Lia down roughly on one of the benches along the back area of the Quinjet. The team would sit here to put on their gear and ready themselves, and there were seat belts here to keep them in place on especially turbulent flights. The Winter Soldier buckled a struggling Lia in place with a seatbelt and then broke the clasp keeping the two halves of the belt together so she wouldn't be able to undo the straps and escape.

Peter watched silently from below as the man at the base station boarded the Quinjet and introduced himself to Lia. She started crying and shaking. Peter wanted nothing more than to punch that creep in the face and get Lia out of there, but the Quinjet was already taking off. He had no idea how to fly it, and even if he did the Winter Soldier would take him out before he took a single step.

He watched the man, Oskar, press a few buttons on the controls at the front of the jet.

"There," he stated. "Now those Avengers will have no way of tracking us."

Peter knew that he and Lia would never make it back without the help of the Avengers. They needed to be able to track them. But he couldn't just go out and reactivate the tracking system.

His phone vibrated in his back pocket, making him freeze momentarily. Nobody aboard the jet seemed to hear anything, though. He took it out to silence it completely and was struck with an idea. He shot a quick, three-word text to Tony and then completely silenced his phone. He just hoped that Tony would get the text in time. The cell coverage wasn't exactly optimal at 35,000 feet in the air.

ooOOoo

Meanwhile, in the last remaining Quinjet, the Avengers were making plans to crash the party at whatever facility that madman was taking Lia to.

Natasha was sitting by herself in the corner of the jet, talking quietly into a flip phone she'd produced from her pocket as soon as they took off. Anytime anyone asked what she was doing or who she was talking to, she'd wave them off and go sit somewhere else where no one would overhear her conversation.

Pietro sat near the front of the Quinjet, watching the screen that was tracking Peter's phone. He watched the little dot move farther away from them and grimaced. The jet Lia and Peter were one took off almost three hours before they got there. Adding in another two hours to search the compound, revive Natasha, and get the jet ready for takeoff, the Avengers were nearly five hours behind them. The other jet was also flying slightly faster due to its smaller size and the fact that it was only carrying four people, not eight like they were. By the time it arrived at its destination, they would be about six hours behind. Pietro starting thinking about what that doctor could do with six hours and shuddered.

Wanda walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "We are flying as fast as we can, Pietro. Don't dwell on how long it will take to get there. Dwell on the good fortune that we're not even further behind than we are now."

Pietro nodded. "I'm just worried, is all. Six hours is enough time to do some damage to a person."

"We're all worried, Pietro. Just remember: worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it never gets you anywhere," she replied.

"That… is surprisingly good advice, Hermione," Tony said.

Wanda raised an eyebrow at Tony. "You know Harry Potter?"

"Wait a minute," Tony said. "You actually know what Harry Potter is?"

"Of course," Pietro said. "We read the books together as children in Sokovia."

"You mean I finally found a reference you guys understand?!" Tony said, jumping to his feet.

Pietro and Wanda glanced at each other before looking back at Tony and nodding slowly.

Tony pumped his fist. "Hallelujah! The pop culture Gods have finally taken pity on me!"

Natasha walked back over to the group, snapping her phone shut.

"Are you ready to tell us what you've been doing alone in the corner, Nat?" Steve asked.

"Nothing. Just calling in a favor," she replied vaguely.

"Okay," Sam said, standing. He clapped his hands together. "If you guys are done chatting and praising the Gods of pop culture, we need to come up with a plan for when we get to… wherever it is we're going."

"The Falcon is right," Thor spoke up. "It is not wise to rush into battle without first planning our attack."

"Well, what do you propose we do, Sam?" Clint asked. "I'm open to suggestions."

"As a matter of fact, I do have an idea," Sam said. "Here's what we're gonna do…"

ooOOoo

Lia was silent for the majority of the trip, trying and failing to think of ways to escape. She thought about using her powers, but creating precipitation of any kind could cause the Quinjet's systems to malfunction. She hadn't yet figured out how to project her powers outside, so that was out of the question as well. Maybe she could try and bring Bucky back…

"Bucky?" she whispered. She didn't want Oskar, who was sitting in the pilot's seat at the front of the plane, to hear her.

The assassin sitting next to her didn't move a muscle.

"Bucky?" she tried once more. "It's Lia. You have to snap out of it. You're not the Winter Soldier. Not anymore. Please, please listen to me!"

Her attempts were met with silence. She sighed.

"We're nearly there, _fraulein_ ," Oskar called from the pilot's seat. "Soon you will be reunited with dear Doctor Pohl once more."

Lia paled again. She began taking deep breaths, trying as hard as she could to keep calm. She even started talking to herself.

"It's okay Lia," she said, tears starting to leak down her cheeks yet again. "You're going to be fine. Natasha will be fine. Peter will be fine. Everybody will be fine. You just have to be brave for a little while longer until somebody comes."

She was desperately trying to keep from completely falling apart.

"The Avengers don't know where you are cause they're on a mission, but Peter or Natasha will call them and tell them what's going on. Then they'll come for you. They won't leave you here. You just have to be brave. You can do this, you can do this, you can do this…"

She was hyperventilating now, her fear beginning to spiral into another panic attack.

"You're okay, Lia. You're okay. You're gonna be fine…"

Then she broke. All the emotions she was working so hard to keep in check flowed out of her like a waterfall. She pulled her knees up to her chin, rolling into a ball, and sobbed.

"I want my mom," she cried. "I want my mom, and I want my sister, and I want my brothers, and I want all my crazy uncles, and I want Peter!"

She repeated the first and last bit over and over between short, shallow breaths. "I want my mom, I want Peter, I want Mom, I want Peter…"

Peter watched the scene in front of him unfold from his hiding spot under the floor. It was physically hurting him to not run over and help his best friend. Tears were leaking from his eyes as well. He had seen Lia cry. He had helped her through a panic attack. But he had never seen her like this. So utterly alone. She was trying her hardest to be brave and wait for help, but she was so, so afraid. Peter wanted to climb out of his hiding place, run over to Lia, and just hold her until she stopped crying. He wanted to tell her that help was on the way, that he was here, that he wouldn't let that horrible man harm her. But he couldn't. He couldn't blow his cover, not just yet.

So he sat, crying silently, and watched.

ooOOoo

The minute the Quinjet touched the ground, the Winter Soldier stood from his seat. He hadn't moved a muscle during the entire eight hour trip from upstate New York to just outside Munich, Germany. He grabbed the seat belt keeping Lia fastened in and broke it apart easily, grabbing her wrist in a vice-like grip so she couldn't escape.

The ramp lowered, revealing a balding, middle-aged man waiting at the bottom. He grinned evilly when he caught sight of Lia.

"Ah, _Willkommen zuhause, Dreizehn_. I've been expecting you."

And Lia fainted.

The Winter Soldier moved swiftly, scooping up the unconscious girl in his arms before she could hit the floor.

Doctor Pohl nodded his head toward him. " _Danke,_ Winter Soldier. If you'd be so kind as to follow me…"

He began walking swiftly in the opposite direction, toward a large group of trees. Oskar jogged behind them, trying to catch up. As they grew closer, it became clear that the trees were camouflaging a large building.

When they made it to the edge of the forest, Doctor Pohl placed his hand on the bark of the nearest tree. There was a beeping noise and a large amount of hanging foliage was lifted, revealing the entrance to the facility. Doctor Pohl walked inside, waiting impatiently for Oskar and the Winter Soldier to follow.

He led them down several long hallways, stopping in front of a large doorway. He placed his hand on the pad next to the door and waited.

"This is my laboratory," he explained as the door slid open. "Only my handprint will open the door. There are hand scanners on the inside as well, so only I can open to door to let people out."

He pointed to a metal table with lots of buckles and straps attached. "Place _Dreizehn_ over there and strap her in."

The Winter Soldier did as he was told, placing her unceremoniously on the table and strapping her down so she wouldn't be able to move when she woke.

"That will be all," Doctor Pohl said, waving his hand to dismiss him. "Oskar will show you where you will be staying."

Oskar straightened up at the mention of his name. He gestured for the Winter Soldier to follow him and led him out of the lab's still open door.

Doctor Pohl placed his hand on the scanner to lock the door and smiled wickedly.

"Now," he said to himself, "To ready the serum…"

ooOOoo

Peter followed closely behind the three men, taking special care not to be seen. He ran from tree to tree, hiding behind each one he passed. He just managed to slip inside the building before the automatic door slid closed.

He crawled up onto the ceiling once he got inside. There were no places to hide in the building, and people seldom looked up for some reason. Peter could never figure out why that was.

He crawled through the laboratory doorway and stayed right above the room's occupants. The room was so large that they would notice him anywhere else.

When Oskar and the Winter Soldier left the room, he silently dropped from the ceiling and hid under the table Lia was strapped to, scouring the place for a better hiding spot. He spotted an open, empty cupboard that was big enough to hide him with the door closed and climbed inside, closing the door almost all the way so he had a little light and a way to see out. Now, he just had to wait…

ooOOoo

Lia opened her eyes only to immediately shut them again. There was a bright, blinding light shining straight at her. She moved her hand to cover her eyes… only to discover she couldn't move at all. She struggled against the straps and buckles that held her until she realized exactly where she was.

Then she started hyperventilating again.

"Ah, you're awake," a horrifyingly familiar voice said next to her.

She turned her head to see the face of the man that had haunted her dreams for as long as she could remember.

"Remember me?" he asked, grinning.

Lia didn't say anything. She couldn't speak if she wanted to. She was too terrified.

"You're going to stay silent, I see," he observed, pouring liquid from a vial into a small beaker that was being held over a bunsen burner. "It's probably for the best, anyway. You'll need to save your voice for all the screaming you'll be doing in a few minutes."

He pulled a small glass rod from a drawer not too far from him and stirred the mixture. "You are probably wondering what's in this beaker, hmm?"

Lia stared at the beaker but didn't say anything.

"This beaker contains a chemical mixture that reacts with iron in the bloodstream to create a compound that tricks the pain receptors in your body into thinking there is severe tissue damage. In layman's terms, it will hurt. A lot."

He stuck a thermometer in the liquid to check the temperature. "This is what I've used on you in the past when you misbehaved. However, I recently discovered that by simply heating the liquid, the reaction happens twice as fast and twice as potently. Therefore, the punishment is more severe. And the punishment must be more severe. After all, you ran away."

Lia was shaking. "Please…" she couldn't get any other words out.

"I'm sorry, _fraulein,_ " he said. "But you need to be punished." He stuck the end of a syringe into the mixture and sucked most of it inside.

Lia was frantically shaking her head and struggling against the restraints.

Dr. Pohl rubbed an alcohol wipe across her arm before pushing the needle into it and injecting the liquid.

Almost immediately, she heard screaming. It took her a minute to register that it was her doing the screaming. Pain began coursing through her body, coming from the injection site. Her body felt as if it were on fire inside. The pain was more intense than it ever was before. She could feel herself growing faint.

The last thing Lia remembered was seeing a red-gloved hand make contact with Doctor Pohl's face. Then she succumbed to the blessed, pain-free darkness.

 **A/N:** ** _Willkommen Zuhause_** **is German for "Welcome Home", and** ** _Danke_** **is German for "Thank You".**

 **Also, I'm taking one-shot requests for this story arc. If you have a story idea for Lia, Peter, or the rest of the Avengers (or any Marvel characters that haven't been mentioned in the story), PM me or leave it in a review if you don't have an account. Again, please don't hate me. I have the next chapter half-written and, knowing me, it will be up tomorrow, so you don't have to wait very long to find out what happens next.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Hey, guys. I felt kinda bad about leaving you on a cliffhanger at the end of the last depressing chapter I wrote. This chapter is the longest one in the entire story so far. Hopefully, it will make you feel better. I really enjoyed it. I don't know how many chapters will come after this one. Maybe one or two. But I'm thinking about writing a sequel. What do you guys think?**

 **Anyway, read, review, and enjoy!**

Peter fought to stay silent in that cupboard. He told himself he wouldn't act, he would stay hidden until backup came. But when he heard Lia beg not to be injected, something inside him snapped.

He slammed the cupboard door back so hard it snapped off and went flying. Doctor Pohl looked over at him in shock just as he pushed down the plunger of the syringe. He could hear Lia screaming in pain behind him. Peter's fist made contact with the side of the doctor's head, throwing him back into the wall and knocking the syringe out of his hand. It flew to the other side of the room and shattered, causing the toxic liquid inside to splatter everywhere.

Doctor Pohl looked up from his spot on the ground where he'd slid down off the wall. He opened his mouth to say something but was silenced by a final blow from Peter, knocking him unconscious.

It took Peter a moment to register that the screaming had stopped.

He rushed back over to the metal table. Lia was semi-conscious, breathing heavily. Sweat glistened on her face as she fought the effects of the drug. Her eyes were scrunched up in pain, her hands balled into fists. She struggled weakly against the bands holding her to the table.

Peter immediately began to undo the bands keeping her in place. He could hear her whimpering softly each time his fingers brushed her skin.

"Shh…" he said. He noticed that when he talked, she struggled less. So he kept up an almost constant barrage of mindless rambling.

"Ned got another Star Wars set," he said casually. "An X-wing. It's pretty cool. He hasn't built it yet, though. It's gonna be pretty big when it's done. Oh, and Michelle got a new book as well. She was reading it at lunch the other day. It's called 'The Shining'. It looked pretty scary. I'm not sure why she likes reading that kind of stuff." he paused for a moment to undo a particularly tricky band.

"May made walnut loaf again this week," he continued. "It reminded me of when we first met. Do you remember that? I remember walking into my apartment after school that day and seeing you sitting on the couch. You looked nervous for some reason. And then we went in my room with Tony and Tony left and we just talked for a bit. I've never done that with anyone before. You were just so insanely easy to talk to that I felt like I could tell you my life story and you would never tell another soul for as long as you lived."

She was completely silent now, and very still. Worried, Peter quickly undid the last few bands and slid his arms under her knees and back so he could pick her up bridal style off the table. She didn't stir. Peter thought back to what she'd told him about the day the Avengers found her. He remembered her saying that she had been heavily drugged when they found her.

He moved toward the back of the room and sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall. From where he sat, he had a clear view of the unconscious doctor and the door.

Ever so gently, he lifted her eyelids. Her pupils were very dilated. He could barely see the iris of her eyes. She must have gone through this right before the Avengers found her.

There was a large bang on the door to the lab.

Peter froze.

The door banged again, even louder this time.

Slowly, very slowly, Peter maneuvered Lia so she was laying on the ground next to where he was sitting, hidden from view. Then he stood and crawled up the wall to the ceiling.

The door banged open, revealing the Winter Soldier. Only this time, something was different.

"Peter?" he called out.

Peter was so shocked he fell off the ceiling, landing on the ground with a thump. He sat up, rubbing his head.

"Bucky? Are you Bucky? Or are you the Winter Soldier pretending to be Bucky? Or are you Bucky pretending to be the Winter Soldier? Or-"

"Yes, yes! I'm Bucky!" he said, cutting off Peter's rambling. "I was only pretending to be the Winter Soldier. The SHIELD scientists wiped all of that programming from my mind a long time ago."

"How did you know I was in here?" Peter asked, confused.

"I saw you under the floor of the Quinjet," he answered. "I figured you would've followed us inside. You've got guts, doing something like that."

Peter went over to where he'd left Lia and pulled her into his arms again before walking back over to Bucky.

Bucky's face fell when he saw her. "Oh, Rosie…" he said. His flesh hand stroked her hair softly.

"She's in pretty rough shape," Peter commented. "The doctor over there injected her with this yellowish stuff." He pointed to the broken syringe on the other side of the room. "It made her scream and shake and cry. I punched the guy and knocked him out. When I came back over here she wasn't really conscious anymore."

Bucky went over and examined the yellow liquid. It was thick and viscous. He scowled.

"I've seen this before," he said, "in the facility I was kept in. They would use it on anyone who broke the rules. It burns you from the inside out. Literally. I don't know how she's survived having that done multiple times. This is way more potent than the stuff I've seen them use."

"Maybe it has something to do with her powers," Peter suggested. "She can control the water cycle. Maybe her body has some sort of involuntary reaction that takes the water from the air and puts out the so-called fire."

Bucky looked skeptical. "Maybe…"

Peter was watching the unconscious doctor. "You know, we should probably restrain that guy before he wakes up."

"Probably, yeah."

Bucky lifted the doctor over his shoulder and put him on the metal table, strapping him in the way Lia had been only minutes before.

"Right," he said, dusting off his hands when he was finished. "We should also probably call for backup."

"Already did," Peter said proudly. "I texted Tony on the jet and told him to track my phone."

"So that's what that vibrating noise was," Bucky said. "I was wondering about that."

"Wonder when they'll get here…" Peter said.

There was a large, loud crash, big enough to make the room shake. Beakers and vials fell from the shelves of the room, shattering onto the ground. Bucky dodged several glass jars filled with questionable contents, and Peter used himself as a human shield, protecting Lia from falling debris and glass.

When the shaking stopped, Bucky looked over at Peter.

"I think they just got here," he replied.

ooOOoo

"This is where the phone stopped moving?" Tony asked, skeptical. "This is a forest. There's nothing but trees!"

"That's exactly what they want you to think, Tony," Clint replied, checking and rechecking his bow and arrows. "They want you to think 'oh, it's just a forest, there's nothing suspicious about an especially thick group of trees that are positioned in such a way as to indicate that they're hiding something.'"

"I see your point, Legolas," Tony conceded. "But are we sure this plan of ours is gonna work? In order to smash through the wall, we'd need to ram the Quinjet through it. And seeing as we don't know where in the facility Spiderling and Tesla are, we could injure them, or worse."

"The plan will work just fine, Tony," Natasha assured him. "We won't be needing the jet to smash through the wall."

"Well, how do you plan on smashing through it, then? L'oreal over here already told us that it would take too long to use his hammer to get in."

"The Man of Iron is right. Mjolnir can get through, but it would take time that we do not have," Thor agreed.

An almighty roar was heard below the Quinjet. It was so loud it made the jet shake in mid-air.

"What the heck was that?" Sam asked.

"That," Natasha said with a grin, "would be the favor I called in."

All eyes turned to look at the large green blur smashing through the trees below.

"You called Banner?" Steve asked in shock. "I thought you said you didn't know where he was!"

"I didn't," Natasha said, shrugging. "But he gave me this phone, just in case we ever needed him." She showed them the flip phone she had been talking into earlier.

"Why would he give that to you? Why not any of us?" Wanda asked curiously.

"He knows I can keep a secret, unlike most of you." She looked directly at Pietro.

Pietro grinned back at her. "I'm not even going to deny it. I'm a horrible secret-keeper."

"Well come on then," Tony said, the helmet of his suit lowering. "Let's land this bird already so we can get in there and kick some butt."

ooOOoo

After the pain finally subsided, Lia found herself floating between consciousness and unconsciousness. She had a vague sense of what was going on around her, but she wasn't really able to do anything about it. And even if she wanted to, she was too exhausted to care.

She could hear Peter's voice. How did Peter get here? She didn't have the energy to contemplate how. She listened intently, but her brain was too muddled to work out exactly what he was saying. She could feel his fingers brushing against her skin as he undid the straps holding her in place, reassuring her that he was really there and she wasn't just imagining things. She felt him pick her up into his arms and finally relaxed. She knew she was safe here. Peter wouldn't let anyone hurt her.

Then there was a lot of loud noises. Lia felt something cold pressing against her. She was on the floor. People were talking. She could hear Peter's voice again, talking to… Bucky?

Now she was just confused. Lia wanted to open her eyes, to see what was going on, but the drugs coursing through her bloodstream prevented her from doing so. Nevertheless, she continued to fight the effects, trying her hardest to open her eyes, to twitch a finger, to do anything that would let them know that she was listening.

The cold floor was gone. Someone was holding her again. Peter. She felt someone touch her hair and heard Bucky talking. His voice sounded soft. Though she couldn't understand what was said, she could tell that he was no longer the Winter Soldier.

Then there was a loud noise and a lot of shaking. Someone, or something, let out a massive roar. That wasn't something she was expecting to hear. Things were becoming clearer now. She could make out some of what was being said…

"What was that?" Peter asked, trying to regain his balance again now that the floor had stopped shaking.

Bucky turned toward him, a serious look on his face. "Stay here," he said.

Peter nodded, taking a seat on the floor and positioning Lia so that he was holding her tightly against him. He wasn't letting go of her again any time soon.

Bucky ran out the door and down the corridor in the direction of the noise he'd heard and was shocked at what he found.

The entire corridor was completely gone. The roof and walls had been smashed in, leaving a gaping hole to the outside. Sunlight was streaming through it. But what was really amazing was what he saw going on outside.

The Avengers were fighting their way through hundreds of HYDRA agents, slowly drawing closer to the base. Behind them was the Hulk, smashing all of the jets and helicopters the agents had stashed among the trees. Most of the trees were gone as well, he noticed. He saw a Quinjet parked not too far from the facility, covered in branches and leaves. It seemed Tony's parking skills left much to be desired.

Bucky ran to join the fight, grabbing a gun from one of the fallen agents on his way over.

Natasha was the first one to notice him. She sprinted toward him and tackled him to the ground, forcing him into a position with his arms pinned behind his back so he couldn't move. She put pressure on his windpipe, trying to choke him out.

Bucky struggled to breathe, trying to tell her that he wasn't the Winter Soldier anymore.

"Na...ta...sha…" he managed to choke out.

She removed her hand from his neck. He gasped for air.

"Bucky?" she asked.

"Yeah… it's me…" he said, coughing.

"How the heck-"

"I was never the Winter Soldier," he explained as she climbed off him. "I was just pretending to be him. I'm sorry about the tranq dart. I didn't know how else to take you out without you figuring out what was going on."

"You mean to tell me," she started, "that you pretended to be a homicidal maniac, tranqed me, kidnapped my daughter, and handed her over to the man who has haunted her every waking moment, and you think 'I'm sorry' will fix it?!"

She punched him in the face, hard. He stumbled backward, a hand on his cheek.

"Natasha-"

"Don't." She held up a hand. "Just don't."

She walked off to rejoin the fight, leaving a speechless Bucky behind her.

ooOOoo

Lia was slowly regaining consciousness. She could understand what was being said. Peter was talking to her, trying to pass time and keep himself calm.

"I found this little hole-in-the-wall pizza place the other day. Maybe when we get back home we can go check it out, if your mom will let you leave the house. I know she's pretty strict about that kind of stuff. I mean, if you can't come, I can always order for you and bring it to your place. But it would be more fun if you could come yourself."

Lia could hear noises coming from behind him.

"Umm, what else… Oh! I aced my history quiz, the hard one I was telling you about. I thought I wouldn't pass, but May helped me study and I got a 96. She says history is important, but I don't know when I'm ever gonna need to know the names of every battle that took place during the Civil War."

The noises were growing closer. Lia focused all her energy on trying to open her eyes.

"There's this Thai place near my apartment that May and I like to go and eat at when we're too tired to make something ourselves. One of the servers keeps bringing May free dessert. I think he might have a crush on her. I don't really know what to think of it. I think it's weird. But May thinks it's sweet. Maybe she has a crush on him too. That would be really weird."

Lia opened her eyes. Peter didn't seem to notice her, so she took a deep breath in.

He glanced down at her and immediately stopped talking. "Lia?"

Lia just watched him tiredly. A large shadow appeared behind him.

"Peter…!" She whispered urgently.

Before Peter could respond, he was forcefully lifted up and away from Lia's field of view.

ooOOoo

The Avengers worked their way through the crowd of HYDRA agents.

"Guys, we're not going to be able to take all of these guys out," Steve shouted, tossing his shield at a group of the thugs.

"Steve's right," Clint yelled. He was perched in one of the few remaining upright trees, taking the agents out one by one. "There are too many of them!"

"Natasha, you think you can calm Banner down?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, sure. Most likely. I don't know. Worth a try," she answered distractedly, shooting widow's bites at several thugs at once.

"Well go try," Steve said. "Bucky, go get Lia and Peter and get them out of there. We'll take care of Pohl."

"A little busy at the moment, don't know if you noticed!" he shouted back. There was a circle of agents surrounding him.

"I'll go!" Pietro said.

"Then go! And hurry!" Sam said.

Pietro sped off into the building, only to find the door to Doctor Pohl's lab locked. He looked through the one-way glass next to it that was used for observing experiments and stopped still, his mouth dropping in awe.

"Guys…" he said into his comlink. "You need to come and see this."

ooOOoo

Lia found herself staring at the floor. She could hear Peter behind her.

"How the heck did you even get out of those straps?! LET ME GO!"

She struggled to push herself up off the floor, failing spectacularly when her arms slipped out from under her and her face smashed into the ground once more.

"Stop your screaming, you imbecilic child!" Doctor Pohl shouted. "You will pay for what you've done!"

Something inside of Lia snapped in half.

Using the little strength she had, she pushed herself into a sitting position, then used one of the many tables around the room to pull herself up.

Doctor Pohl had Peter strapped down on the table, preparing to inject him with the yellowish torture liquid.

"Hey!" she shouted as loud as she could, coughing afterward.

Both Peter and Doctor Pohl turned to look at her.

"Lia?!" Peter said, shocked.

" _Dreizehn_? Are you still standing? After everything I put in that injection?" Doctor Pohl asked, dumbfounded. "You're stronger than I remember."

"Don't… don't hurt him…" she said weakly, leaning on the table for support.

He cackled. "Just how do you plan on stopping me? You can barely stand, let alone put up a fight. Go back to sleep, child. I have work to do." He turned back to Peter.

Lia's head was pounding from the effort it took to stay upright. Nevertheless, she persisted, taking a few steps around the table until she had a clear view of Doctor Pohl.

"Leave… him… alone!" She yelled as loud as she could. The hand holding her upright on the table slipped, causing her to fall to her knees. She was breathing hard, one hand clutching her head.

Doctor Pohl bent down to her level and looked her in the eye.

"Or what?" he said with a wicked smile.

"Or I'll kill you," she said.

If looks could kill, Doctor Pohl would have dropped dead on the spot. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. He stood, staring down at her, and kicked her in the side, hard.

She slid across the floor, holding her side, coughing.

"You stupid waif," he sneered. "You really think you can stop me? You're nothing but an insignificant little speck of dirt on my shoe. You. Are. WEAK."

And with that, he left her there, panting for breath.

"No," she hissed, forcing herself back onto her own two feet. "I'm not weak."

Doctor Pohl ignored her, preparing the serum he needed with his back turned to her. Peter was watching her with concerned eyes.

"I am strong," she grunted, pulling herself forward using the many tables and chairs around the room to hold herself up.

"You've always told me… that nobody cared about me… and you're wrong…" she said between breaths. "I have… a mom… and two brothers… and a sister… and a bunch of crazy uncles… and a best friend… that I love more… than anything else… in the world. And they… care about me…"

"What point are you trying to make?" he replied calmly, filling a syringe with the thick, yellowish solution.

She held herself upright, staying still for a moment. "I have people who care about me. But there is nobody out there that cares about you."

He held the needle against Peter's arm, preparing to inject him.

"And that's why," she said, grabbing hold of the table next to the one Peter was laying on, "nobody is going to miss you when you're gone."

She closed her eyes, summoning all her remaining strength, and concentrated, hard.

A slight breeze began to blow. It slowly intensified, gaining speed and power. Rain began to fall, harder and faster against the metal tables and fixtures, increasing the noise.

"Tony doesn't call me Hurricane Lia for nothing!" she yelled.

Gale force winds were blowing through the laboratory. It was so windy that the furniture started moving around. Papers were flying everywhere. The rain was pouring so hard it was as if the three of them were standing under a waterfall. Lightning struck several of the tables around them. Earsplitting cracks of thunder were heard.

Lia pushed all of her anger, resentment, and fear into her powers, intensifying them. The visibility in the lab was next to none, and yet, Lia could still see everything around her. The protective bubble that she normally had was gone, subjecting her to the full force of her abilities. She'd redirected the energy used to keep her safe into her powers to increase the effect.

Doctor Pohl was cowering on the floor under one of the tables, holding on to one of the legs to keep from blowing away.

Despite the massive winds, Lia walked easily over to him, bending down to his level.

He gazed at her in fear.

"What are you?" he asked.

"The last thing you'll ever see," she replied dangerously.

She took a step back and watched as lightning struck the table he was holding onto, instantly frying him to a crisp. She watched her worst nightmare go up in smoke, never to bother her again.

Slowly, very slowly, the rain began to let up in intensity, and the wind began to die down.

Lia stumbled backward a few steps, completely drained of energy she didn't even have in the first place. He breathing was labored, her vision blurred. She was fighting once again to remain conscious. She saw Peter sitting up on the metal table, his hair plastered to his forehead. How he freed himself from the bonds holding him Lia would never know.

She heard noises behind her and turned her head.

There, standing at the door (which had been blown off from the high winds), was the Avengers, along with a man in a red cape with long blonde hair and a sick-looking shirtless man with ripped up pants.

Her eyes were instantly drawn to Natasha.

"Mom…" she whispered.

And she fell to the floor.


	12. Chapter 12

Natasha rushed over to Lia the second she collapsed, holding her close and muttering in Russian.

"вы в безопасности, маленький. мать здесь," she said softly, stroking her daughter's hair.

Nobody said anything for several seconds.

Finally, Tony broke the silence. "You okay over there, Charlotte's Web?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Peter answered, undoing the straps that were holding his legs. "She took out the doctor before he could do anything to me."

Wanda was staring at the charred remains of Doctor Pohl with a mixture of horror and disgust. "Lia did this?" she asked. "How did she keep from electrocuting herself? The water should have conducted the electricity to her."

"Tis for the same reason I am not harmed when I summon lightning," Thor answered. "I am a conductor. I conduct the electricity to the ground through me, but it does not harm me. Lia conducts the electricity to the ground. Therefore, everything around her will be electrocuted, but she will not."

Now free from his bonds, Peter came and joined the group, sloshing through the large amount of water that remained on the floor. He had managed to break through the ones holding his arms using his superhuman strength but had to undo the other ones manually.

He bent down next to Natasha, moving his wet hair out of his eyes. "Is she gonna be okay, you think?" he asked, worried. He took her hand in his.

Doctor Banner, now significantly less green, knelt next to the pair and did a quick examination, checking her pulse, breathing patterns, and pupil dilation. He had an odd look on his face. He beckoned for Wanda to come over.

"What is the extent of your powers, exactly? Can you detect brainwave activity or anything like that?"

She shrugged. "I can try."

She waved her hands around Lia's head, red energy glowing all around. When she had finished, she turned to Doctor Banner.

"Her brain is very active at the moment. What does that mean?"

He looked concerned. "Her pupils aren't reacting to light. If her brain is active, they should retract when exposed to light. This indicates some kind of neural damage."

"What does that mean?" Pietro asked, worried.

"It means we need to get her to a hospital or someplace with the right equipment so I can do a proper diagnosis. The sooner the better. From what I can tell, she's suffering from a combination of overexertion and extreme fatigue, coupled with whatever drugs that madman injected her with. She probably hasn't had anything to eat or drink all day, either. The best thing we can do for her is to get her in the Quinjet and hook her up to an IV, get some fluids in her. Then we need to take her to the nearest hospital."

Peter was watching Bruce with keen interest. "Who are you?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same question," he replied.

"SHIELD is on their way," Steve stated, causing everyone sans Natasha to turn around and look at him. Nat was still wrapped up in her own little world, where nothing else mattered but the health and well-being of her daughter.

Seeing everybody's confused expressions, he held up a cell phone. "I called them."

"Sorry, Spangles. We were all too preoccupied with the elephant in the room to think about calling Blackbeard," Tony replied casually.

Pietro was staring at the room they were in, his mouth agape at the mess. There was water everywhere. Piles of broken glass and wet paper were scattered throughout. Furniture was tipped over and broken. Some of the furniture had burn marks from the lightning that had struck.

"It's like a hurricane came through here…" he said, still trying to wrap his mind around it.

"A hurricane did come through here," Peter explained. "I've never seen anything like it in my life."

"Look, guys, as shocked as we all are, mini-Thor needs medical attention," Tony pointed out. "We can all chat and gossip and tell stories about what happened when we're back on the Quinjet."

"Who's gonna fly the other Quinjet?" Sam asked. "Don't know if you noticed, but there are two of them here right now."

"We'll split up. Half of us will head to a hospital with Lia right now and the other half will stay back until Fury and his cleanup crew get here," Steve said.

Clint looked over at Natasha. "Nat and Peter are going with Lia," he stated. "I'll go too. Nat's gonna be way too distracted to focus on flying the jet."

"I'll go with them as well," Bucky added. "And it might be a good idea if Doctor Banner came with us."

"Can I come too?" Pietro asked.

"Yeah, sure, Lightning McQueen. Go ahead. Spangles, Goldilocks, Glinda the Good Witch, Tweety Bird and I will stay back and wait for Captain Sunshine," Tony replied.

"I know Lightning McQueen! He is the super fast race car from Disney, right?" Pietro asked.

Tony's eyes looked like they might pop out of his head. His mouth opened and closed again repeatedly. He pressed his hands together in a prayer position and whispered a thank you to the ceiling.

"Okay…" Sam said slowly. "I'm gonna ignore the fact that you just called me Tweety Bird in favor of figuring out what to do with that."

He pointed to the smoking black humanoid figure that was still clutching the table leg.

Wanda took one last look at it and grimaced. "You guys can deal with that. I'm going to get all this water out of here." She set to work redirecting the water out the door and down the corridor to the gaping hole leading outside.

Bruce touched Natasha's shoulder. She looked up at him, the spell finally breaking as she realized what had transpired over the past few minutes. She blinked, glancing around the room.

"We need to get some fluids into her or she's gonna get worse," he said gently.

She nodded, gathering her daughter in her arms and walking briskly out of the room, Peter following closely behind her.

Pietro, Bucky, and Bruce weren't far behind. Clint turned back once more before exiting the room.

"Stay in touch!" he said. "We'll send you updates."

"Same here," Steve answered back.

"Seriously though, man. What are we gonna do with that guy?" Sam asked, wrinkling his nose at the corpse.

Steve opened his mouth, then closed it again, shaking his head.

"Let's let Fury deal with it."

"Agreed."

ooOOoo

Clint put in the coordinates for SHIELD's German base. It was about an hour away, but it had a pretty sufficient medical center. Lia would be able to get the help she needed there.

Once they were in the air, he set the jet to autopilot and went to check on Bruce's progress. He had Lia hooked up to an IV drip and was checking her pulse again. Natasha had gotten her out of her wet clothes and into dry ones. She was sitting next to her on one side with Peter on the other, now in dry clothes as well. Neither said anything to the other.

Bucky and Pietro were sitting further back, observing the proceedings. Pietro was watching Lia. But Bucky, he noticed, was watching Natasha. He looked ashamed.

Clint went and sat next to him. "You okay, man? We're all worried about her, you know."

Bucky sighed, hanging his head. "It's not that I'm worried about her. I mean, I am worried about her, I'm worried to death, but that's not what's bothering me."

"Wanna talk about it?"

He glanced back over at Nat. "It's Natasha," he said. "When she found out I was pretending to be the Winter Soldier, she snapped. She socked me in the face and told me off for kidnapping her daughter and handing her over to the enemy. She hasn't spoken to me since."

Clint put his hand on Bucky's shoulder. "I can understand where she's coming from. Why did you pretend to be the Winter Soldier?"

"I figured out what was going on almost immediately. The guy who tried to activate the Winter Soldier wanted to take Lia back to HYDRA. I figured if I went along with the plan he would take me directly to Doctor Pohl and I could take him out for good. Seems Rosie beat me to the punch."

"Makes sense," Clint conceded. "But think about the cost. Lia's been pushed to a breaking point physically, mentally, and emotionally. She's never gonna forget about this. It's gonna haunt her for the rest of her life. Peter as well. He's gonna need to talk to somebody about all of this. And Nat's not gonna let Lia out of her sight for a long, long time."

"Yeah, I know. I feel so terrible. Nat's never gonna forgive me."

"That's where you're wrong," Clint pointed out. "Nat was incredibly worried about Lia. She actually started crying a bit back at the compound. She just needs some time to process what's going on. When you think about it, Lia was actually safer with you there. Hopefully, she'll realize that. She'll forgive you eventually. Just give her time."

Bucky nodded. "Thanks, Clint. I needed that."

"Anytime, man. If you need to talk, let me know."

Natasha was pretty wrapped up in what was going on in front of her, but she was tuned into the conversation happening a few feet away as well. When Clint went back to the front of the jet, she turned to Bucky.

"I don't hate you, you know," she pointed out.

He looked up. "Really?"

She nodded. "Really. Punching you was kind of a spur of the moment thing. I kind of understand why you did what you did. But I'm still very mad at you."

"I get that," he said, nodding. "I wanted to tell you what was going on. Really, I did. But I couldn't risk any of you blowing my cover."

"Tell me this though," she asked seriously. "Was it worth it?"

Bucky thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No. If I could do everything over, I'd do things differently. I'd find a way to let you know what was happening. I never left Lia alone with that guy, though. I knew that Peter would sneak in and follow us."

"Yeah. I still can't believe you knew I was there," Peter said. "I was so careful."

Bucky shrugged. "I'm a spy, kid. You'd have to be a clone of Natasha for me to not notice you."

Peter glanced back at Lia and sobered. "It's my fault," he said sadly.

"What's your fault?" Natasha asked gently.

"It's my fault that Lia got injected with those drugs. I wasn't quick enough to stop the guy. I should have reacted faster." he hung his head.

"Hey." Bucky came over and sat next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Nothing you could have done would have prevented that guy. He would have done it one way or another."

"I don't think I'm ever gonna forget that," he said, watching Lia with sad eyes. "Watching her on the Quinjet on the way to Germany. She was trying so hard to stay brave and wait for help. But she just couldn't hold her fear back anymore. She was crying so hard. She kept repeating 'I want my mom, I want my mom'..."

"She wanted you, too," Bucky reminded him softly. "I was there, remember?"

A few tears leaked from Peter's eyes. "It hurt so bad, not going over to help her. I just had to sit and watch."

Bucky put his arm around Peter. "I know, kid. It took everything I had not to blow my cover to her."

"You really care about her, don't you?" Pietro said, walking over to the small group. Bruce had left to sit with Clint at the front of the jet.

Peter wiped the tears from his eyes. "Yeah. She's my best friend in the entire world. She means everything to me. I don't know what I'd do if she…" he took her hand and entwined it with his, unable to finish his sentence.

"What exactly happened back in the lab?" Pietro asked, curious. "You said a hurricane came through there?"

"Yeah," Peter said, looking up at Pietro. "It was Lia. She saved my life. The doctor was gonna inject me with that yellow stuff that burns you and she pretty much summoned a hurricane in the room to stop him."

"Even after being drugged she was able to do that? That's incredible," Pietro commented.

"Yeah. She was actually kinda scary. She was saying all this stuff about how he always told her that nobody cared about her but that in reality he was the one nobody cared about and that was why nobody would miss him when he was gone. And you've gotta remember, less than a minute before all this she couldn't even stand without leaning on a table for support."

He was silent for a moment, contemplating something. "She said something else that got me thinking. She started listing off people who care about her; her mom, her sister, her brothers, her crazy uncles..."

Clint snorted from the pilot seat. "Crazy is an understatement."

"Anyway," Peter continued, "she listed you all off and then she said 'and a best friend who I love more than anything else in the world'. Do you think she was referring to everyone as a group when she said that or just me?"

"She loves you, Peter," Natasha answered. "Maybe not romantically, but she does love you. Did you know that before she met you we'd never heard her laugh?"

Peter was stunned. "Really?"

"Yup. She was pretty closed off. She would talk to us, and sometimes we could get her to smile, but the first person she really, truly connected with was you."

"That's not true," Bucky pointed out. "She connected with you pretty fast."

"I know, but that's different. We have a different kind of bond than the one she has with Peter. I could never make her laugh," Nat explained.

"That's insane," Peter breathed. "She's always seemed so open and happy."

"Only when you're around. You should see her when you aren't. She's pretty happy most of the time, but she sort of keeps to herself. She doesn't really interact with us unless we talk to her first. But whenever she gets a text from you her smile lights up the entire room."

"We really connected with one another mainly because we both felt alone, isolated from everyone else around us," Peter explained. "After that, it was like we'd been friends for ages. We were talking about all sorts of stuff on the drive over to the compound. Favorite foods, favorite colors, what we're most afraid of-"

"She told you what she's most afraid of?" Bucky interrupted. "What is it? I've asked her at least three different times and she's never told me."

"I've asked her that as well," Natasha added. "She was always too embarrassed to tell me."

Peter hesitated a moment. "As it turns out, our biggest fears were exactly the same," he said finally. "We're both deathly afraid of people leaving us. I'm afraid of people dying and leaving, but she's secretly afraid that you guys will get bored of her and leave."

"What?" Bucky and Natasha said at the same time.

"She told me that every person who ever even remotely cared about her before you guys came along left her alone. She's terrified that it will happen again. I've told her multiple times that you guys aren't going anywhere, I'm not going anywhere, but she's still scared nonetheless."

Lia suddenly took a deep breath in, prompting everyone to turn and look at her. She still didn't stir.

"Hey guys, we're coming up on SHIELD's German base," Clint called out. "I radioed ahead and told them what was going on. They have a med team on standby."

Peter stood, letting go of Lia's hand, and was shocked to find that she was still gripping his.

"Guys… she won't let go," he pointed out.

Bruce came over to take a look. "This is good," he commented. "She's responding to outside stimuli. Her neural state might not be as bad as we thought."

Peter gently pried her fingers from his hand, stumbling a bit as the jet touched down on the tarmac outside the German facility. He saw the med team waiting on the landing pad. As soon as the ramp of the jet lowered, they rushed inside.

It was then that Peter remembered something crucial he'd forgotten.

"Oh man… I was supposed to be home like yesterday… May's gonna kill me."

ooOOoo

Lia was very still, her face deathly pale. She was hooked up to several different machines. This one measured her heart rate, that one measured brain activity, etc. A nurse had come in a few minutes ago to take a blood sample to send off to the lab.

Bruce was talking with one of the doctors out in the hallway. Peter, finally giving in to his exhaustion, had fallen asleep, his head on Lia's hospital bed, one hand still entwined with hers.

Bucky and Natasha weren't faring much better. After getting their various scrapes and cuts checked out by the med team, they were cleared to come and sit with Lia, but they too were fighting exhaustion, having not slept for the last couple of days.

Pietro was passed out on a couch in the back of the room. Clint had left to find something to eat, promising to bring food back for the rest of them.

But for now, all they could do was wait.

Bruce walked back into the room and addressed the group.

"The results for Lia's blood test came back," he said hesitantly, "and they're not good."

Natasha and Bucky were immediately wide awake again, listening intently.

"The main ingredient in that toxin Lia was injected with is an industrial chemical called dinitrophenol, or DNP. They used it to make explosives back during World War l. They actually made diet pills with the stuff back in the thirties. It accelerates your metabolism at a dangerous rate to burn fat quick, but it makes you feel as though you are being burned from the inside out. It's extremely dangerous, not to mention illegal."

"I remember that, actually," Bucky commented. "The diet pills in the thirties, I mean. There was a huge craze for them, but the side effects were horrific. They went off the market a few years later because of it."

"They do actually help you lose weight, but not without extreme consequences. We've theorized that the dosages Lia received before we rescued her were much more diluted than the one she received today. Had she received the full dosage that Doctor Pohl intended to give her she wouldn't be breathing right now. Thankfully, Peter stopped him before he could give her the full dose. She only got about two-thirds of it, from what we can tell."

"I can tell by your face that that isn't the only thing that's wrong," Bucky said.

Bruce bit his lip. "The DNP was mixed with another chemical that mimics tissue damage," he said. "It causes the body's pain receptors to fire, sending signals to the brain that says something is wrong. The brain will then send platelets and debris-removing inflammatory cells to fix the problem and repair the tissue. The problem is, there isn't actually any tissue damage."

Bucky turned to Natasha. "Translation?"

"The stuff they injected her with is tricking her body into thinking she's hurt when she really isn't. Her body is working overtime to try and fix a problem that isn't there," she explained.

"Ah," Bucky said, understanding.

"Basically, between fighting the DNP and trying to fix a problem that isn't there, her body is working itself to death. She's not giving herself time to heal," Bruce concluded.

"Is there anything we can do?" Nat asked, worried.

Bruce nodded. "Yeah, there are a few things we can try. All hope isn't lost quite yet. We're gonna give her a blood transfusion first, see if we can't flush out some of those toxins."

"And if that doesn't work?" Bucky questioned.

"We'll try dialysis. Normally, the kidneys will filter the blood and send any contaminants down to the bladder for the body to expel naturally. But Lia's still pretty dehydrated, and her kidneys are working overtime like everything else in her body. We can give them a hand by filtering her blood through a dialysis machine that will remove the contagions."

"Do you think it will work?" Nat asked.

"Yeah, I think it will work," Bruce said, nodding. "She's a fighter. She'll pull through. She might have some temporary damage, but she should heal up all right in the end."

Nat nodded her head, leaning back in her chair with relief evident on her face.

Bucky took out his phone. "I'm gonna call Steve, give him an update."

He exited the room, Bruce not too far behind, at the same time that Clint entered it. His arms were laden with sandwiches and soda cans.

"What did I miss?" he asked.

Natasha started bringing him up to speed on the recent development while he maneuvered his large load onto a small table in the middle of the room. One of the soda cans fell out of his arms, landing on the floor with a loud clang.

Peter bolted upright, looking around the room with eyes still heavy from sleep.

"Whasgoinon?" he asked groggily.

Bucky reentered the room. "Steve and the others are on their way. Fury showed up with a horde of agents not too long ago and they have things under control."

Peter yawned loudly, stretching his arms above his head. "How's Lia?" he asked, slightly more awake.

Bucky explained the situation. Peter listened intently, eyes widening at the diagnosis. He turned back to Lia, placing his elbows on the hospital bed and propping his head up with his hands.

"Don't worry," he said to her. "We'll get you better." He yawned again.

"I think we could all benefit from a decent night's sleep," Clint said. "None of us have slept in at least 48 hours. This place has decent rooms. Choose one. That's what I'm gonna do."

He grabbed a sandwich and a soda off the table and left the room.

Bucky stood. "I think I'll take Clint's advice, for once." He picked up a sandwich and soda as well.

"Me too," Natasha said, standing on her tiptoes to stretch her legs. "What about you, Peter?"

He shook his head. "Nah, I'm good. I'll stay here with her. Someone ought to."

She shrugged. "Okay. Make sure you eat something, though."

"I will." He glanced over at Pietro, who was still zonked out on the couch.

"What about him?" he asked.

Bucky waved him off. "Don't worry about him. Pietro could sleep through an alien invasion."

"Pietro has slept through an alien invasion," Natasha reminded him. Seeing Peter's curious look, she added, "That's a story for another time."

Bucky and Natasha left the room to find a place to sleep.

Peter laid his head back down on the hospital bed, using his arm as a pillow. He held one of Lia's hands in his own, playing with her fingers.

"Don't worry," he said with a yawn. "You're gonna be fine."

Within a few minutes, he was fast asleep once more.

 **A/N: There's a lot of medical knowledge in this chapter that I had to research. I wanted to make sure I got all the facts right. The chemical I mentioned, DNP? It's real. The effects are real. It raises your body temperature to a point that you burn from the inside out. And it really was sold in diet pills in the thirties. The other toxin, the one that mimics tissue damage? That one is fictional, as far as I know. I'm really not sure. It might exist. Google wasn't being particularly helpful with that one.**

 **Also, the Russian phrase at the beginning of the chapter translates to 'Don't worry, little one. Mother is here'.**

 **Thanks for reading. I'd love a review if you have time. :) If I got any of the medical stuff wrong, please let me know so I can fix it!**


	13. Chapter 13

When Natasha went to check on Lia the next morning, she was pleasantly surprised by what she saw.

The remaining Avengers had arrived after she'd gone to sleep and had come to check on Lia. They were all asleep in various places throughout the room, wiped out from the events of the previous day. Tony was asleep on the couch, having pushed Pietro off onto the floor. Pietro, evidently, had slept through the whole thing, as he was snoring softly on the floor next to the sofa.

Thor was asleep on the floor as well, using his arm as a pillow, one hand still on Mjolnir. Sam and Steve were sitting in a couple of uncomfortable looking chairs, their heads leaned back. Wanda was sitting on the floor next to Pietro, leaning against the sofa, her head hanging down.

Peter, in stark contrast, was wide awake, talking to Lia animatedly in a hushed voice, despite her still being unconscious. One of the nurses had already started the blood transfusion earlier that morning, as evidenced by the bag of blood hanging on the IV pole.

"...he was so surprised he dropped it and it broke into a million pieces! We had to rebuild it the next day. It's one of the coolest Lego sets we've built, in my opinion."

Natasha cleared her throat. Peter looked up at her. "Oh, hi."

"Hi. How's she doing?"

"She's doing okay," he replied. "A nurse came and started her blood transfusion at around six in the morning. I've been up since then talking to her. I was telling her about when Ned found out I was Spiderman."

"She's looking better, that's for sure," Natasha remarked.

Lia wasn't nearly as pale now. Most of the color had returned to her face. The transfusion seemed to be doing her good.

Natasha took a seat in the chair directly next to Peter's. "So…" she began. "I've been thinking."

"About…?" Peter prompted.

"About a few things. Now that Dr. Pohl is out of the picture, I'm not feeling as hesitant about letting Lia leave the compound unsupervised."

"You mean she can come over to my apartment now?" he asked, trying hard not to show how excited he was about the subject.

She smiled. "Yes. She can go over to your apartment now. But I'd like to come with her the first time so I can meet your aunt."

Peter nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, of course! May doesn't know I'm Spiderman though, so we have to be careful discussing that topic."

She nodded back. "Understood."

The nurse that started Lia's transfusion entered the room to check on her. She checked her IV line and the bag of blood, which was nearly empty.

"It seems we're about done here," she said. "I'm just going to disconnect this real quick."

While the nurse busied herself with Lia's IV, Clint walked in with another armload of food, this time bottles of milk and juice and various breakfast sandwiches. Natasha and Peter both immediately jumped up to help him carry the large amount of food. They were able to maneuver the load onto the table in the middle of the room without dropping anything like last time.

"Where do you keep getting all this food?" Peter asked.

"Cafeteria," Clint replied, pointing behind him at nothing in particular.

Peter grabbed a breakfast sandwich and a bottle of grape juice. He hesitated for a moment.

"She's gonna be okay, right?" he asked, staring at the bottle of juice. Grape juice was Lia's favorite.

"She should be if all goes well," Bruce replied, walking through the doorway. "I was talking with the doctor about the next step we should take."

He glanced at the still unconscious girl. "The blood transfusion has done her good," he said. "Look how much color has come back into her face. And her brainwave activity is no longer higher than normal. Her body is finally letting her rest."

"Good," Peter said, somewhat relieved. He knew he wouldn't fully stop worrying about her until she woke up, though.

As soon as Peter unwrapped his breakfast sandwich, Pietro sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Peter stared at him, dumbfounded. "How the heck did you sleep through Tony shoving you off the couch but the sound of me unwrapping a breakfast sandwich woke you up?"

Pietro looked incredulously at Peter. "It's food," he said as if that explained everything.

And, in a way, it kind of did.

ooOOoo

The first thing Lia became aware of was exhaustion. She was so, SO tired. She couldn't remember ever feeling this drained. What happened to her?

She racked her brain, trying to remember exactly what happened. The last thing she could remember was seeing Peter strapped to that horrible table…

Peter! Was he okay? Did he get out? She was very worried about him. How did he get there in the first place? And Bucky… what had happened to him? She had so many questions that needed to be answered.

Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to get answers to any of her questions until she was completely conscious. She could hear this odd, incessant beeping noise to her right. Someone was talking as well, droning on and on and on…

Peter.

Now she was fighting to wake up, to open her eyes, to see Peter's curly brown hair and chocolate eyes and to make sure that he was okay. Something in her was telling her to wait and be patient, that she'd wake up eventually, but she ignored it. She didn't want to wait. She wanted to see Peter now.

"...and you'll get to meet Ned and Michelle and Liz and we can all go out for ice cream and pizza and stuff whenever we want!" he was saying enthusiastically. "I'm so excited to show you my new room. Remember when I said that we moved to a different apartment? You'll get to see my bunk bed and my desk and stuff. I still haven't put very much stuff up on the walls. Most of it is in bins on my top bunk. But you can help me put stuff up if you want. And we can play chess, too. I got this awesome new chess board…"

Lia could feel the exhaustion deep in her bones, but she was not giving up. She could feel Peter playing with the fingers of her right hand, bending each finger one at a time over and over again. She could clearly hear the incessant beeping of the heart rate monitor next to her now.

"Hey, webs," she heard Tony's voice say. "How's she doing?"

"Better, I think," Peter replied. "Dr. Banner said that the blood transfusion worked really well."

Lia concentrated all of her extremely limited energy on opening her eyes. They felt as heavy as lead. She cracked open an eyelid slightly, immediately closing it again due to the brightness of the hospital room. After a moment, she tried again, this time successfully opening her eyes.

There was Peter, sitting next to her bed, holding her hand and talking like there was no tomorrow. He hadn't noticed her yet, and she had absolutely no energy left to say anything.

"...and then the pigeons stole Ned's hotdog!" he said. "Although, if he didn't want them to steal it, he probably shouldn't have been feeding them bits and pieces of it. Pigeons look cute, but they're nothing but feathered parasitic demons."

Lia smiled a bit at his comment, taking a deep breath in. This prompted him to look up at her. His seemingly endless chatter instantly ceased.

"Lia?" he asked, almost not believing what he was seeing.

She smiled a bit bigger in response, her eyes still heavy-lidded. She still wasn't able to speak, or even move really.

Peter stood from his chair and moved to press his lips against her forehead. She closed her eyes as he did so, reveling in the feeling of him being so close to her.

"I missed you," he said softly. "I've been really worried. We all have."

Her eyes were starting to close again. The only thing that had even opened them in the first place was sheer willpower.

Peter noticed her eyelids drooping again and sighed. "It's okay," he said. "Go back to sleep. You really need it. And don't worry. I'll still be here when you wake up. I promise."

And with that, she slipped back into unconsciousness, her goal fulfilled.

ooOOoo

When she awoke again several hours later, her eyes weren't nearly as heavy. Peter was still there by her side, holding her hand. He was still talking, but not to her anymore.

"...I'm sorry...May, I'm sorry... yes, I know I'm grounded for life...I know, I know...I didn't have a choice! How many times do I have to say I'm sorry, May? ...I don't know when I'll get home. Probably late tonight or early tomorrow, depending on the time difference...please don't make him do that! I only did what I did to protect Lia! ...Yes, Lia's fine. She's just resting right now, she can't talk...okay, May... I'll call you when we leave...love you May...okay, bye."

He hung up the phone and placed it on the bed next to him, laying his head on the bed in frustration.

"I'm so dead when I get home…" he said to himself, his voice muffled.

Lia gripped his hand a bit tighter, letting him know that she was awake once more. He sat up to find her smiling at him.

"Hey Peter," she said, her voice hoarse from disuse. She had been sleeping for almost 24 hours.

Peter's face lit up with a grin when he heard her speak. He leaned over her on the bed, pulling her into a hug. She hugged him back, not ever wanting to let him go.

They did let go eventually. Peter propped up her pillows and helped her into a sitting position. She leaned back against the pillows, making herself comfortable. Her stomach let out a loud growl.

Peter laughed out loud for the first time in days. "Hungry, are we?" he asked.

She nodded. "Very."

He stood. "I'm gonna go find Dr. Banner and tell him you're awake."

He left before she could ask who Dr. Banner was. It wasn't long before he returned with a middle-aged brunette man who was graying slightly.

He smiled kindly at her. "Hello, Lia. My name's Bruce. How are you feeling?"

"Tired," she replied. "And hungry. And kinda sore, too."

"That's to be expected. Perfectly normal," he assured her. "Do you remember what happened?"

She pondered for a moment. "I remember seeing Peter strapped to that terrible table," she said with a shudder. "Everything is sorta fuzzy after that." she glanced around the room. "Where are we, exactly?"

"We're in SHIELD's German base, about an hour from Munich," he explained. "Everyone else is here as well. They're all upstairs, trying to pass time."

There was a loud bang right above them, making them all jump. They could hear someone (Natasha most likely) telling someone off upstairs.

"Ten dollars that was caused by Tony," Lia said to Peter.

Peter nodded. "It had to be him. Tony and boredom don't mix."

"Anyway," Bruce said, regaining their attention. "Take it easy for a while. I'll go tell the others you're awake and see about getting you something to eat."

He left the room, leaving Peter and Lia alone once more.

"So…" Lia said, breaking the silence. "How's May?"

Peter grimaced. "Madder than a hornet. She didn't have any clue where I was until I called her a few minutes ago. I told her that I was over at the compound when Bucky went rogue and kidnapped you and that I followed him all the way to Germany. She wasn't happy."

"Does she know that you're Spiderman now?" she asked.

"No. I managed to keep that little detail under wraps. She knows that I'm safe. She also threatened to call Tony and have me banned from the compound."

"That won't happen," Lia assured him. "I'll blackmail him if he tries."

"Blackmail him with what?" Peter asked curiously.

She grinned evilly. "I caught him singing opera down in his lab a few weeks ago. If he tries to ban you then the video I took of him singing will be posted on the internet for all to see."

Peter laughed out loud. "Yeah, that would do it."

"What exactly happened to you? How did you get to Germany?" she asked. "All I remember is seeing you get thrown out of my bedroom window."

"I stowed away in the Quinjet they used to take you to Germany," he replied.

Her mouth dropped open. "You were there the whole time?" she asked, dumbfounded. "Where?"

"The cargo hold, under the grated floor," he answered. "I stayed there the entire eight-hour trip. I wasn't going to just leave you alone with the Winter Soldier."

She was speechless. "You risked your life for me?" she asked, tearing up slightly.

"Of course," he said. "You're my best friend. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I lost you."

"Peter…" she was crying now, the realization of everything that had transpired in the last 48 hours hitting her full force.

Peter climbed up on the bed and sat next to her, putting his arm around her. "Don't cry, Butterfly. Everything's okay now. He is gone for good."

"He is?" she asked, sniffing. "What happened to him?"

"You don't remember?" he said, concerned.

She shook her head. "No."

Peter was about to tell her what she had done to the man but stopped short. She wasn't in the right frame of mind to hear about that.

"The Avengers took care of him," he said. It wasn't really a lie. Lia was a part of the Avengers and she had taken care of him.

"I want to go home, Peter," she said through her tears. "I want to go home. I don't want to be here anymore."

"We're gonna go home, don't worry. We've just gotta make sure you're okay first," he said soothingly.

Bruce re-entered the room at that moment, followed by Natasha and Bucky.

When Lia saw Bucky, she moved closer to Peter, hiding her face in his shoulder. She would be lying if she said she wasn't afraid of him at that moment.

When Bucky saw her reaction, his face fell. His shoulders sagged. Natasha put a hand on his shoulder.

"Give us a few minutes," she said quietly.

He nodded, making his way out of the room with one last sad glance toward Lia.

Natasha sat on the edge of the bed and grabbed her daughter's hand.

"Hello, _Malyshka,_ " she said softly.

Lia looked up.

"How are you feeling?"

Lia just shook her head before hiding it back on Peter's shoulder. Natasha gave him a questioning look. He just shrugged the shoulder Lia wasn't currently using as a hiding place.

"She's kinda overwhelmed at the moment," he explained.

"Ah." Natasha nodded in understanding.

"I got her something to eat if she still wants it," Bruce said hesitantly. In his hands was a mini box of corn flakes and a bottle of grape juice. "I heard she really likes this stuff," he said, holding up the bottle.

"Thanks, Bruce," Natasha said, taking the food from him.

Bruce then backed out of the room to give the trio some privacy.

Natasha held up the grape juice bottle. "Look what I've got," she said in a sing-song voice.

Lia just barely raised her head so she could see what Natasha had to offer. At the sight of the grape juice, she reached out her hand.

Natasha pulled her hand back. "Uh-uh," she chastised. "If you want the juice, you have to talk to me."

Lia slowly pulled her hand back, glancing between Nat and the juice bottle.

"What was that about just now when you saw Bucky?" Nat asked. "Why did you hide?"

Lia hesitated. "I'm afraid of him," she said softly.

"Why are you afraid?" Nat continued.

"He gave me to him."

Natasha didn't need to ask who him was.

"Did you know that he was pretending the entire time?" Natasha asked. "He was never the Winter Soldier."

"He wasn't?"

"Nope. He just pretended to be the Winter Soldier so that he could go with you and keep you safe without blowing his cover."

Lia looked skeptical. "Are you sure?"

Natasha noticed Bucky peeking in the doorway once more. "Why don't you ask him yourself?" she said, gesturing for him to come in.

Lia held out her hand for the grape juice. Natasha chuckled, passing it over to her. She handed the cereal box to Peter. "Make sure she eats some of this," she said.

Peter nodded. He watched as Lia unscrewed the cap of the juice and took a sip, her eyes never leaving Bucky's as he came in and sat on the edge of her bed.

"Hey, Rosie," he said nervously.

She didn't reply. Peter opened the miniature cereal box and passed it to her. She took it from him, popping a few pieces of cereal into her mouth.

"I'm so sorry, Rosie. So very sorry. I regret doing what I did, even if it was to keep you safe. I understand if you don't want to forgive me. I was being selfish and using you to get to Doc- him," he corrected himself. "I put you through a lot of pain. I'm so sorry. Please don't be afraid of me."

Lia didn't respond. She just watched him with cautious eyes. Bucky sighed and stood to leave.

"Все нормально," she said.

Bucky stopped still. He had heard that phrase before. A memory came to the surface of him interacting with a small, brown-haired girl. She had witnessed the horrors of what he could do and yet, she was never afraid of him. She would comfort him with that phrase. _It's okay._

He turned around to face her once more. "маленький боец?" he asked.

She nodded. "ты помнишь."

He was speechless. "Я искал тебя," he managed to get out.

"Ты сделал?" she asked.

He nodded. "Я сделал."

Peter was looking back and forth at the pair, his mouth agape. "Since when do you speak Russian?" he asked Lia.

"I learned some phrases in the facility I was kept in. I can also speak fluent German," she answered.

"Does this mean you forgive me, Rosie?" Bucky asked hopefully.

She smiled. "Yes, _Bratishka_. I forgive you."

He smiled widely, walking briskly over to her bed and wrapping her in a big hug.

Peter knew then that things were going to be okay.

A **/N: The Russian conversation translates as follows:**

 **"It's okay."**

 **"Little Fighter?" (This is the nickname he called her when he was still in Hydra captivity)**

 **"You remember."**

 **"I looked for you."**

 **"You did?"**

 **"I did."**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Hey guys! It's been a while! The last couple of weeks have been insanely crazy for me. Things are starting to calm down though. I'm definitely going to write a sequel to this story. Still trying to think of a title, though. The title of this story has quite a bit of significance. You'll find out what it is in the next chapter. Or maybe the one after that. I'm really not good at planning these things...**

 **Also, I have like ten different unfinished one-shots with these guys on my computer so look out for more of those. Read, Review, and Enjoy!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Spiderman. Or the Avengers. I do, however, own Lia and the plot.**

The doctors at SHIELD's German facility cleared Lia to go home not long after that. They all decided to leave the next morning.

"You need to rest and keep a close eye on your fluid intake. Don't get dehydrated," Bruce counseled the next day.

"I won't," she promised, munching on a breakfast sandwich. At least her appetite hadn't diminished.

"Has anyone given any thought to the Quinjet we left behind in Budapest?" Pietro asked. "I feel like that's something we really shouldn't forget about."

"I remotely activated it last night," Tony assured him. "It's been flying back to New York since then. It should be there within the hour."

"Who's going in what jet?" Steve asked. "There are two jets and quite a few of us. We'll get home faster if we divide evenly between the two. That way, there won't be quite as much weight in either of them."

"I've taken the liberty of drawing up a chart to show who is in what jet," Tony said proudly. He held up a piece of paper with said chart drawn on it.

Quinjet 1: Lia, Peter, Clint, Bruce, Tony, Thor

Quinjet 2: Bucky, Sam, Natasha, Pietro, Wanda, Steve

"If you don't like what jet you're on, you can switch. But Gandhi, Tesla, and Webs have to stick together. No tradesies for you three."

"Why?" Lia asked, her mouth full of sandwich. She swallowed. "Not that I want to trade. I'm just curious."

"Given the fact that you were unconscious less than twelve hours ago, I figured it would probably be a good idea for you to travel with Gandhi, seeing as he is an actual doctor."

"Nuclear physicist," Bruce corrected. "But I know enough medical knowledge to be helpful in certain scenarios."

"Right," Tony said. "And Webs has been glued to your side for the last two days. I think he might literally die if we separate him from you."

"Ah," she said in understanding.

Steve was talking to a group of SHIELD agents near the landing pad where the two Quinjets were. He jogged over to the rest of the Avengers.

"The jets are fueled and ready to go," he said. "We can leave as soon as we're all ready."

Lia was halfway to the closest jet before Steve even finished his sentence.

Clint chuckled. "Somebody's eager to get home."

"She's not the only one," Bucky said, pointing toward the jet. Peter was sitting next to the ramp, waiting for Lia.

"I think he's more eager to see Lia than he is to get home," Sam pointed out.

The rest of the Avengers began to make their way towards the two jets.

Lia stopped still in front of the jet Peter was sitting next to and felt her stomach drop as she stared at it. She suddenly didn't want to go home. She didn't want to spend eight hours in there. The last time she had been in a Quinjet, she had been on her way to see him. That evil man had been there with her. She had been strapped into place, unable to move… She stared inside of it, her breathing starting to become more rapid.

Peter immediately noticed and jumped up off the ground, taking her hand and leading her away from the jet.

"It's okay, Lia. Just breathe," he said soothingly.

"I don't wanna go back in there," she said, terrified. "I don't wanna…"

Peter pulled her into a hug. He could feel the eyes of the other Avengers on him as they gathered around the pair. Peter shook his head at them.

"She doesn't wanna get on the Quinjet," he whispered.

"Oh," Steve said. "I don't think any of us thought about that."

They took a few steps back to reconvene without Lia being able to hear.

"What do we do now? Lia's not going to go in there of her own free will, I can tell you that," Sam said. "She's showing some serious signs of PTSD. I think it would be a good idea to have her reevaluated when we get back."

Bruce snapped his fingers. "I have an idea," he said. "Give me five minutes."

He turned and walked back into the building.

Lia's breathing was slowing down. Peter had successfully prevented another panic attack. But he didn't know how they were going to get Lia on that jet. She wouldn't even look at it now.

Bruce came back a few minutes later with another bottle of grape juice. He took his time unscrewing the cap before handing it to Lia.

"Here," he said. "Thought this might make you feel better."

She raised an eyebrow at him. Slowly, she reached out and grabbed the bottle, taking a little sip.

"Pray tell, Nelson Mandela, how is grape juice going to help our situation?" Tony asked.

"I slipped a mild sedative in there," he whispered. "She's gonna be pretty out of it for a little while. Just give it a few minutes."

The rest of the Avengers boarded the Quinjets to make last minute checks and make sure that they had enough supplies to make the trip back home. About twenty minutes later, Natasha, Bruce, and Tony all came out on the tarmac to check on Lia and Peter.

They found them sitting against a shipping crate. The now empty bottle of juice was sitting a few feet from them. Lia was leaning against Peter, her head on his shoulder. She watched them approaching her and giggled at them. Peter looked up at them.

"What did you put in that juice?" he asked suspiciously.

"It's just a mild sedative," Bruce assured him. "She'll be a little out of it until it wears off."

"But she won't remember the trip home, which is good for her," Tony added. "She's already gone through a lot of crap these last few days. Forcing her into the jet would be the dressing on the trauma salad."

"You make the weirdest analogies, Tony," Natasha said, shaking her head.

"Thank you. I take pride in my weird comparisons," Tony replied proudly.

Lia pointed at Tony and started giggling like a maniac.

"What's so funny?" he asked Peter.

Peter shrugged. "I dunno. She gets really giggly for some reason whenever she gets sedated like this. Back when she had her panic attack and got cut on her leg, the doctor gave her a mild sedative for the pain before stitching her up. She wouldn't stop giggling for like an hour, I swear."

"That's equal parts creepy and endearing," Tony replied.

"Yeah. I don't know what you gave her exactly but if it's the same as what she had last time then she'll be super giggly for about an hour and then zonk out for the foreseeable future."

"Think we can get her on the jet now?" Nat asked. "She seems pretty out of it."

"We can try," Peter said hesitantly. "I don't know how she's gonna react, though…"

He managed to shrug Lia's head up off his shoulder so he could stand up. He took her hand and helped her to her feet.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"We're going home," he replied.

She nodded seriously. "That's good. We should do that."

The others had to hold back their laughter as Peter led a very disoriented Lia onto the Quinjet that they had come over on. She stumbled a few times, almost falling off the ramp.

When they got inside, Peter sat her down in the far corner, where several blankets and pillows had been piled up, courtesy of SHIELD Germany. They wanted to make Lia's journey home as comfortable as possible.

Clint maneuvered the jet off the tarmac and into the air, heading back home to New York.

Peter sat next to Lia. She looked around, seemingly unfamiliar with surroundings. Her eyes landed on Thor.

"Who's that?" she whispered to Peter.

"That's Thor," Peter explained. "We met while you were asleep."

"Tis a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Lia," he said, bowing slightly.

She gave him a calculating stare. "You talk funny."

"Tis normal Asgardian dialect," Thor said, confused.

Clint patted Thor on the back. "Don't worry, buddy. She's kinda confused. We gave her some medicine to calm her down and it's made her a little loopy."

"That guy looks like my uncle. His name's Clint," Lia said, pointing at the archer. "My Uncle Tony likes to say funny things about him when he's not home."

"Wait, what?" Clint asked, turning to face her. "What does Uncle Tony say about your Uncle Clint?"

"Uncle Tony calls Uncle Clint funny names. He calls him Robin Hood and Lego Lost and some other names but I don't remember. He told me that he was the one that ate all of Uncle Clint's Ho Ho's."

"That was you?!" Clint said, whirling around to face him.

The billionaire had a nonchalant look on his face and was whistling casually.

"What?" he asked.

"What else does she know that she hasn't said?" Clint wondered out loud. He went over and knelt down next to her.

"Hey Lia, what can you tell me about your Uncle Tony?" he asked, a devious look on his face.

"My Uncle Tony builds stuff," she said. "He builds robots and fixes cars and all sorts of cool things. But he does other stuff too."

"Like what?"

She leaned toward Clint conspiratorially. "Sometimes," she said, "he sings songs while he builds stuff. He sings really high, like this." She sang a high, rather off-key operatic note.

Clint burst out laughing. Tony scowled. "You have no proof, Tesla."

"She filmed you singing," Peter pointed out.

Tony facepalmed. Clint was doubled over, holding his stomach whilst laughing uncontrollably.

"Who's Tesla?" she asked. "My name's Lia. Sometimes people call me Thirteen, but I don't like that very much."

"Who am I?" Peter asked her.

She studied him for a moment before answering. "You look like my friend Peter. He's nice and safe and he gives good hugs. I like his hugs."

"Really?" Peter said with a smile. "Tell me about him."

"He's my bestest friend in the entire world!" she said, spreading her arms wide to show just how big the world was. "He talks to me on the phone and he comes over to my house to watch movies and stuff. I like it when he comes over cause then we get to talk about all sorts of fun things. He makes me happy."

He opened his arms in response, giving her a big hug. She hugged him back.

"But he has a big secret," she whispered in his ear.

"What's that?" he whispered back.

"He's Spiderman," she said softly. "But you can't tell anyone, cause it's a secret."

"Oh, okay," he said, nodding. "I won't tell."

"Good. I have a secret too. Want to know what it is?"

"What is it?" he asked, leaning forward curiously.

"If I tell you it won't be a secret anymore!" she chastised lightly.

"I promise I won't tell," Peter said.

She leaned in very close so nobody else would hear.

"One time," she said, "he left his jacket at my house. And I never gave it back."

Peter raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you ever give it back?"

"Cause, silly!" she lightly chastised. "It was nice and warm and soft and I didn't want to give it back so I kept it. It's hidden in my room."

"Well, at least we've finally solved the mystery of my missing hoodie."

Bruce came over and bent down on one knee, handing Lia a water bottle.

"Here," he said. "Drink some of this. You need to stay hydrated."

She took the water bottle and stared at him, hard. "You're that doctor guy," she said finally. "I think you did something to my juice cause it made my head get all messed up."

"How do you feel?" he asked.

She looked at him seriously. "I feel wonky. I don't like it." She uncapped the water bottle and took a few sips.

"What do you mean?"

"My head is full of cotton balls and the room is sorta spinny." She yawned, reclining back against the pillows.

"You can sleep if you want," Peter offered. "I can go sit somewhere else."

She sat up ramrod straight. "No! Don't go! Stay here with me."

He held up his hands. "Okay! Calm down! I'm not going anywhere."

"Good." She yawned again, laying down on one of the pillows. "I'm sleepy."

"Then sleep," Peter replied gently, scooting over a little so she could stretch out comfortably. "I'll stay right here."

"M'kay," she said, closing her eyes.

Peter pulled one of the blankets over her before grabbing another for himself. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't tired. It had been a very long week.

About 15 minutes later, Natasha received a text message from Tony with a picture of the two teens fast asleep on opposite sides of the blanket fort, hands entwined.

ooOOoo

Several hours later, Peter awoke to the sound of bickering.

"...a horrible idea! She wouldn't last a week there!" Tony argued.

"It's not really your decision, is it Tony?" Natasha countered. She was speaking from the other Quinjet through a video link.

"I feel like I should have a say here. She'd be perfectly fine doing all that at home. We can hire a tutor. Heck, I'll tutor her!"

"I don't want to enroll her for academic purposes. She incredibly gifted as it is. I want to enroll her for social purposes. She doesn't get nearly as much social interaction as she should. It's good for her development."

"Where did you hear that? The internet?" Tony asked sarcastically.

"No," Natasha defended herself. "I read it in a parenting book."

Tony just stared. "You actually went out and bought a parenting book?"

"No. I borrowed one from Pepper. She's bought several over the years to try and figure out how to deal with you."

Clint started howling with laughter. "She's got you there, Tony," he said.

"Guys!" Peter almost shouted.

"Everyone turned to look at him. He pointed at Lia, who was still sleeping soundly.

"Maybe it's a good idea to not wake her up?" He suggested.

Tony blinked at him, then turned back to the video monitor. "Anyway… even if you did enroll Lia in high school, which school would you pick? There are literally hundreds to choose from."

"Easy," Natasha replied smugly. "I'll enroll her in whatever high school Peter goes to. That way, she'll already have a friend."

"Wait, what?" Peter asked, finally catching up to the conversation. "You're enrolling Lia in high school?"

"I'm thinking pretty hard about it," Nat responded. "I think it would be good for her. What do you think, Peter?"

Peter thought for a moment. "I think that you should ask Lia what she thinks," he said finally. "It's her life, she should have a part in the decision."

Natasha nodded. "Tony, you do realize that a fifteen-year-old gives better advice than you, right?"

"Shut up," he mumbled, walking away from the monitor.

ooOOoo

Lia was still out cold when they landed, eight hours after she'd initially fallen asleep. Peter tried shaking her awake. All she did was roll onto her other side.

"Guys, she's still out cold," he commented.

"Wow, Gandhi. How much of that sleepy-time stuff did you give her?" Tony asked.

"I only put in a single dose, I thought," Bruce said, scratching his head.

"You thought?" Clint asked.

"I was in a hurry. I might have accidentally put in more than I meant to," he said sheepishly.

"How much more?"

Maybe like an extra quarter of a dose? I don't know. I'm running on fumes right now, cut me some slack."

"We're all running on fumes, man," Clint said. "That's not an excuse."

"It shouldn't hurt her, at least," Bruce added. "She'll probably sleep for another hour or so, spend an hour waking up, then bounce off the walls all night."

"This Midgardian girl can repel herself off of the walls?" Thor asked excitedly.

Bruce facepalmed.

Peter gathered Lia up in his arms. She snuggled closer to him unconsciously. Peter felt a funny fluttering sensation in his chest. What was that? He'd been getting that feeling a lot lately. Maybe he'd have to ask Bruce about it later. Was he getting sick?

"Come on, Peter," Bruce said, waving him over. "Let's take her to the medical bay until she wakes up."

Peter nodded, following the older man inside the building.

"Hey, Dr. Banner?" he asked.

"Call me Bruce," he responded.

"Oh, okay. Um, Bruce?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I might be coming down with something."

"Do you now?" Bruce turned the corner into the med bay and led Peter into one of the hospital rooms. He gestured for him to put Lia on the bed.

"Yeah. I keep getting this funny feeling in my stomach," Peter explained, placing Lia gently on top of the bed. He smoothed back her hair and kissed her forehead softly.

"Like what?" Bruce asked.

"It's just kind of funny. Almost like I'm nervous, like I'm gonna be sick, but kind of okay at the same time? I'm not really sure how to describe it."

Bruce chuckled. He sat down in one of the chairs set up in the room and pulled another one closer to him, patting the seat. Peter sat down on it.

"Does it feel like you swallowed an entire butterfly colony into your stomach?" Bruce queried.

"Yeah, that's exactly how it feels!" Peter exclaimed.

"When do you normally get this feeling?"

Peter thought. "Usually when I'm around Lia," he concluded. His eyes widened. "You don't think she has the same problem I have, do you?"

Bruce laughed. "From the way I've seen her act the last day or so, I think she just might," he said.

Peter was very confused. "What's so funny?"

"Tell me about Lia," Bruce requested.

Peter gave him an odd look.

Just humor me for a second," Bruce said. "Tell me about her."

Peter thought for a moment, then smiled. "Lia's amazing. She's my best friend in the entire world. She's the strongest person I know, even stronger than the Hulk. No offense," he said quickly, realizing who he was talking to.

Bruce just shook his head, smiling. "Keep going."

Peter shrugged before continuing. "She's sweet and kind and beautiful and always puts everyone else first. She has the prettiest smile. It lights up the room. And her laugh always makes me grin. But my favorite part about her is her eyes. They sparkle when she laughs. I'm always trying to make her laugh so that I can see them sparkle."

Bruce listened intently until Peter stopped. He nodded his head. "I think I have a diagnosis, Peter," he said with a smile.

"What is it?" he asked nervously.

Bruce leaned forward in his chair. "I think you may be developing feelings for Lia," he answered.

Peter's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

"Answer me this. Why were you so worried about her this last week?"

"Because she's my best friend," Peter answered. His face had the word 'obviously' written all over it.

"I've seen the way you look at her, Peter. Like she's the only thing that matters in the world."

Peter mumbled something under his breath that sounded like 'she is'.

"I know that I don't know you or her very well yet, but I do know this. You saved her life, and she saved yours, in more ways than one from what I've heard."

Peter raised an eyebrow.

"Eight hours is a long time. And Tony had lots to say about you two."

"Ah," Peter said, understanding.

"Anyway, you two have a bond unlike any other. That fluttering feeling? That's your brain telling you that you like her."

Peter sat back in his chair, raking a hand through his hair. He glanced over at Lia. The fluttering feeling returned much stronger than before.

"I think you may be right," Peter said slowly.

Bruce nodded.

"But you can't say anything!" Peter added. "Tony will never let me live it down if he finds out."

"You're secret's safe with me," Bruce promised.

Lia mumbled something from her cot.

"Sounds like she's starting to wake up," Bruce said, standing from his chair. "Make sure she gets something to drink when she's fully conscious. Don't give her anything until then. She may get confused and start choking."

Peter nodded. "Thanks, Bruce."

"Don't mention it."


	15. Chapter 15

Lia wasn't sure how long she'd been sleeping for. She felt like it had been years, though logically she knew that wasn't the case. She felt drugged, sort of woozy, like her brain was filled with cotton instead of, well, whatever a brain was supposed to be filled with.

She opened her eyes to see a familiar sight; the light blue walls of the compounds medical wing. She was so relieved to be home that she started to cry.

"Lia?" she heard Peter's voice from behind her. "Are you crying?"

She rolled onto her other side to face him, sniffing. "I'm so happy to be home."

"Oh. I was worried you were upset or something."

"No. I'm not upset. These are happy tears." She sat up and stretched, wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. "Oh, man. I had like the weirdest dream."

"What was your dream about?" Peter asked, grinning.

"I dreamed that someone drugged my juice and I went totally nuts and-" she stopped. "Wait a second, how did I get home?"

Peter was full on laughing now. "It wasn't a dream, Lia. Doc, um, Bruce drugged your grape juice. You were totally out of it for like an hour. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life."

Lia turned beet red. "Did I say anything embarrassing?"

"Well, let's see." Peter began counting things off on his fingers. "You told Clint that Tony ate all his Ho-Hos, revealed that Tony likes to sing opera while he works, and told everyone in the jet that I was Spiderman."

Lia hid her face in her hands. "Tell me you're joking…"

"Nope. You also revealed to me that you've been hiding my missing hoodie from me."

She looked up at him. "You aren't getting that back. I've claimed it. It's mine now."

"You told me that I'm nice, and I give good hugs, and I'm your bestest friend in the entire world…" he teased.

She covered her ears with her hands. "Stop! I can't take it anymore!"

Peter hopped onto the medical bed, sitting next to her with a grin on his face. "It's okay. I still love you."

Lia looked over at him, a confused look on her face. Peter realized what he had just said.

"P-platonically, I mean!" he said quickly. "Like as a f-friend…"

She gave him a calculating stare. "You're stuttering…"

"I don't… that is to say… I didn't mean…" he sighed, putting his head in his hands. He chanced a glance at her.

She was grinning at him. "I know what you meant. I was just teasing you."

"Oh," he said, relaxing. He studied her for a bit. Her hair was a mess; it hadn't been brushed in a while. She was wearing the clothes she had been kidnapped in. They were slightly ripped from being manhandled. Her arm was bandaged in the spot where she had been injected. She had several cuts and bruises on her face. Her deep brown eyes were red-rimmed from crying, tear tracks still visible on her face. All in all, she looked worse for wear. And she was beautiful.

"Peter?" she asked, breaking him from his trance. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. "Like what?"

"Like you haven't seen me in years."

"I'm just… so happy your home safe," he said. It wasn't technically a lie; he was very glad she was home. But it wasn't exactly the truth either.

"I'm glad to be home, too," she said. "I don't think I'll ever sleep again, for more reasons than one."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well for one I've slept like 36 of the last 48 hours," she started. "And for another, I'm pretty sure the next undrugged sleep I have will be riddled with nightmares."

"Well," Peter started, "in my experience, nightmares are worse when you worry about having them. If you try not thinking about them, they may end up not being so bad."

Lia blinked at him. "You realize how much trauma I've been through this last week?"

Peter had to agree with her. She had a point, after all.

"I can stay over if that will make you feel better," he offered.

She shrugged. "I dunno."

It was about this time that she finally became aware of how awful she looked.

"Dude…" she said, glancing down at her clothes. She scowled.

"This was my favorite shirt!" She said, glaring at it. "Stupid HYDRA. They owe me a new one."

Peter laughed. "There's my best friend. Good to have you back. I missed you."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, smiling at him. Her stomach growled.

"Hungry, are we?"

"I haven't eaten since breakfast. I'm not hungry, I'm starving!"

Peter hopped off the bed, holding out his hand. "We best feed you, then. Don't want you turning into the Hulk. We've already got one of those."

She took his hand, sliding off the bed. They walked silently to the elevator and stepped inside. Once the doors closed, Lia stood on her tiptoes and kissed Peter on the cheek.

"Did I ever thank you for saving my life?" she asked softly.

He shrugged, his cheeks the faintest shade of pink.

She wrapped her arms around his middle.

"Thank you for saving my life."

He hugged her back. "What else was I supposed to do?" He replied softly.

They stayed like that until the elevator doors opened onto the residential floor. Lia let go, smiled, and immediately ran off to the kitchen.

Bruce was sitting in the living room, reading a book. He gave Peter a knowing look.

Clint was sitting on the opposite side of the couch with Thor, trying to teach him how to use a TV remote.

"Alright, who ate the rest of the pop tarts and put the empty box back in the pantry?" Lia's voice echoed through the room. "If there aren't any more pop tarts in this place somebody's gonna die!"

Thor's eyes widened. He pointed to himself and then toward the kitchen. Clint shook his head vigorously at him.

'Run,' Peter mouthed at him.

Thor didn't need to be told twice.

ooOOoo

When Lia stepped into the shower a little while later, she let her thoughts wander. They wandered back to earlier when Peter said that he loved her. She knew what he meant, of course she knew, but the way he had stuttered afterward… Peter only ever stuttered when he was lying or hiding something from her. Did he love her in a different, more romantic way instead of the platonic way he had assured her of?

Lia didn't know. And not knowing was a feeling she didn't particularly enjoy. Especially since she was grappling with conflicting feelings of her own.

It started when she'd had her panic attack. She had spent the next couple of days terrified that he wouldn't want to be around her anymore. People seldom did, after seeing what she was capable of. When Peter told her it would take a lot more than something like that to get rid of him, it stirred something inside her. He cared about her so, so much, more than anyone else ever had. She'd never had someone like that before.

She knew a long time ago that she loved him. Not romantically, at least not at first, but she did love him. Now it seemed that her feelings were shifting from platonic to romantic, and she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that. Peter was her closest and only friend, and she didn't want to jeopardize that. Honestly, she'd been through so much this last week, and her mind was still reeling and trying to make sense of everything that had happened. For all she knew, this was the result of all the trauma she'd experienced.

She turned off the water, resolving to work through these feelings at a later date when she was a bit more mentally and emotionally stable. For now, she was just going to focus on getting through these next couple of weeks. Goodness only knows how hard that was going to be in and of itself.

ooOOoo

Peter's Aunt May arrived at the compound about an hour after they arrived. Tony sat down with her and Peter to try and defuse the situation, to no avail. Peter was pretty sure that everyone in a ten-mile radius heard her screaming. Lia came into the living room after that, eyes wide.

"What's going on?" she asked. "Is everything okay?"

May glanced over at the girl her nephew couldn't stop talking about. "Oh, hello hon. Everything's fine. We're just having a conversation, is all."

"It sounds more like a confrontation than a conversation," she pointed out, walking into the kitchen to make herself some cocoa. She was pretty sure that if she was going to sleep at all that night she would need some sort of calming agent to help her.

"We're just letting May vent, is all," Tony assured her.

"You're not going to ban Peter from the compound, are you?" Lia asked, worried.

"No, Tesla. We aren't banning Charlotte's Web. That would only cause more problems. We're just discussing what happened and figuring out what we can do to make sure it doesn't happen again," he replied calmly.

"Oh," she said, reaching on her tiptoes to try and reach her favorite cocoa mug. "Okay."

Peter chuckled before standing from the couch and walking into the kitchen to retrieve the mug for her with a smirk. She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him.

May watched their nonverbal exchange with a smile. She could immediately see the chemistry the two had and knew that keeping Peter from seeing her would do more harm than good.

"Yeah. He's not getting banned," May agreed.

Tony's eyes flooded with relief at her statement. Arguing with that woman was exhausting, to say the least.

"But he is getting grounded," she added.

Peter groaned. "Yeah, I kind of expected that."

"No video games for the next month," May informed him. "And next time you run off to a foreign country, CALL ME."

"Yes, May."

Lia tried and failed to hide her giggle, mixing a package of hot cocoa mix with some milk on the stove.

"It's getting late, and you have a bit of a drive ahead of you," Tony said, retaking control of the conversation.

"That's true. Are you ready to go, Peter?"

Peter glanced over at Lia, trying to read her face. She was trying to act normal, but he could see underneath her mask that she was terrified of going to bed.

"Can I stay the night, May?" he asked.

Lia immediately perked up, looking over at him.

"Stay the night? You've never stayed the night before," she said, unconvinced.

Yeah, but…" he went over to May and talked to her in a subdued voice so Lia wouldn't hear.

"Lia's been through a lot these last couple of days and she's afraid to go to bed. I just wanna stay until she's asleep. This place has tons of empty rooms, I can stay in one of them. Please?"

May couldn't come up with a contradiction to that reasoning. "Okay," she conceded.

"Yes!" Peter exclaimed, giving her a hug. "Thank you, May."

"Take care of her, Peter," she replied so that only Peter could hear her.

He nodded before going back into the kitchen with Lia, who was pouring the cocoa into a couple of mugs.

"You raised a good one, May," Tony commented, leading her to the elevator.

She smiled. "Yeah, I did."

ooOOoo

Lia was sitting on her bed, cocoa in hand, while she waited for Peter to change into the pajamas Pietro had lent him. She was trying hard to forget what had transpired in her room less than a week ago. She glanced toward the window and shuddered, remembering Peter being thrown through it. There was a new pane of glass there now, of course, but there was a hole in her wall where the doorknob went through when the Winter Soldier slammed her door open.

She closed her eyes, willing herself to calm down to no avail. She sighed before opening her eyes and reaching for her phone. Less than a minute later, Moonlight Sonata was playing from her Bluetooth speaker. She closed her eyes once more and listened to the music, regulating her breathing, just like the therapist Nat had taken her to earlier said to do when things got to be too much. She started to hum along to the melody, losing herself inside it.

"Lia?"

She jumped, a hand over her racing heart.

"My goodness, you scared me," she said, watching as Peter came and sat on her bed with her.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, hiding her face behind her cocoa mug as she took a sip. "I'm fine."

To anyone else, her answer would have looked convincing. Not to Peter, though. He knew that she always hid her face when she wasn't being entirely truthful.

"Lia," he said. "You know I can tell when you're not telling the truth, right?"

She smiled sheepishly.

"Come on, Butterfly. It's like, one in the morning. You need to sleep sometime."

"I know," she replied, taking another sip. "And I will. But sometime doesn't mean now."

"Yes it does," Peter gently protested, taking the almost empty mug from her hands and putting it on her bedside table. "You need sleep. Just lay down and close your eyes. I'm not going anywhere."

She raised an eyebrow. "I thought you told May that you were going to sleep in one of the empty rooms."

"I am!" Peter said. "But not until you're asleep."

She sighed. "I'm not getting out of this, am I?"

"Nope," he replied, popping the p.

"Ugh, fine!" she groaned, climbing under the covers. "But when I wake up screaming in the middle of the night it's on you."

"Lia, it's one in the morning. It's already the middle of the night," he responded, walking over to her doorway. He flipped the light switch, plunging the room into darkness.

Lia's eyes widened. She didn't like the dark. Things were easy to see when it was light, but in the dark, things could lurk, creep around unnoticed. Shadows could be misinterpreted as threats and vice versa.

She immediately climbed back out of bed and turned on the lamp on her bedside table before rummaging around in its bottom drawer. She heard Peter walk up behind her.

"What are you looking for?" he asked.

She didn't answer, searching for a minute longer before finally pulling out a nightlight shaped like a Spiderman bust.

Peter burst out laughing. Lia glared at him. He sobered quickly.

"I'm not laughing at you, I swear! I'm just, I mean, why would you get that one?"

"Tony knows I have a hard time with the dark. He got it for me as a gag." She plugged it into the outlet closest to her bed and turned off the lamp. The room was lit with a soft red glow.

She sighed in relief before climbing back into bed and laying down. Peter walked around her bed and sat on the other side, leaning back against the headboard.

"You swear you won't leave?" Lia asked.

"Yes Lia, I swear."

"Okay." She closed her eyes.

Moonlight Sonata had long since stopped playing, leaving silence to fill the room instead. It was much to quiet for Lia's taste. When her mind had nothing to occupy it, it wandered. And a wandering mind was the last thing she wanted at that moment.

"Talk to me," she said a few minutes later.

"What?"

"Just talk. I need something to occupy my mind so that it will stop conjuring nightmare scenarios."

"Oh, okay, um…" Peter thought for a minute.

"There's this sandwich shop in my neighborhood called Delmar's. It's amazing. Best sandwiches in Queens. Mr. Delmar is awesome. He has this cat named Murphy that just sits on the counter all day and watches the customers. I think you'd like him.

"Ned is excited to meet you. I've shown him pictures of you so he knows what you look like and I've told him all sorts of stuff about you, like your favorite color is yellow and you really like Doctor Who. I didn't tell him about your powers, though. I wasn't sure if you wanted him to know or not. Michelle wants to meet you too. She was surprised you're still friends with me after all this time. I reckon she thinks you're insane, but she'll probably change her mind about that when you actually get to meet her.

"May is always asking about you, too. She always asks how you're doing. She really likes you, even though she's only met you like, twice. I think she might know that I'm Spiderman. Even if she's not a hundred percent certain, I'm pretty sure she has an inkling of an idea. Do you think I ought to tell her?"

Peter was met with silence. He turned toward Lia and saw her breathing slowly and evenly. She had finally fallen asleep. He chuckled, pulling the covers over her a little more and kissing her forehead.

"Goodnight Butterfly," he said softly, before tip-toeing out of the room and shutting the door.

ooOOoo

The next morning when Lia woke up, she was surprised to find she hadn't had any nightmares the night before. Having Peter there with her was really calming, apparently. She glanced at the clock on her wall, which read _10:32 am._ She'd slept for a while.

She yawned, stretching her arms above her head, and slid out of bed. She left her room and headed for the kitchen. She could smell pancakes cooking.

As she got closer, she heard the rest of the Avengers laughing and joking with one another. She turned the corner and saw that everyone was there eating breakfast together, something that rarely happened. Steve was flipping pancakes in the kitchen while everyone else, Peter included, was sitting at the table talking.

"Hey, sleeping beauty!" Bucky called out. "We were wondering when you were gonna wake up!"

"We were about to send Underoos in there to make sure you were alive," Tony added.

Lia smiled. "Aren't you guys normally off working or training by now?"

"Yeah," Clint said, "but how often do we get to hang out all together like this?"

"True," she agreed, sliding a barstool closer to the overcrowded table and sitting on it.

"So I've been thinking," she started.

"That's never a good thing," Pietro said, grinning.

She stuck her tongue out at him before continuing. "You guys all have code names. I want a code name too."

"You want a codename?" Natasha asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. Then when I talk to you guys while you're on missions you can use my code name instead of my real name like you do for everyone else."

"What do you want your codename to be?" Steve asked, sliding a plate with some pancakes on it across the counter so she could grab it.

"I don't know. I've been thinking about it for a while but I can't come up with any good ones."

"How about Storm?" Pietro asked.

Bruce shook his head. "That one's already taken."

"Tornado?" Wanda suggested.

Lia wrinkled her nose. "No. I don't think so."

"We could just keep calling you Hurricane Lia," Tony added.

"No. that's a nickname, not a codename."

"I've got it!" Peter said excitedly. "How about Downpour?"

"Downpour," Lia said, trying it out. She smiled. "I like it."

"It definitely fits," Sam agreed.

Thor raised his glass of orange juice. "Let us raise our glasses in celebration for our new comrade, Lady Lia!"

Lia giggled as everyone lifted their glasses in unison.

"To Downpour," Thor said.

"To Lia," Peter said quietly so only she could hear.

"To Downpour!"

"To me," she replied with a smile.

THE END

 **A/N: Well, this is the end of this story! Side note, my brother had that exact nightlight in his room for years. I was so jealous. I'm thinking of writing a sequel. What do you guys think? Thanks for sticking with me through this. I hope this last chapter was worth the wait.**

 **-EllaoftheOpera**

 **PS: If you have a oneshot idea for these two, please PM me! I'm always looking for new ideas and inspiration. Everything I write is PG though, so keep that in mind.**


	16. UPDATE

Hey friends! Just wanted to let you know that I have listened to your comments and have started work on a SEQUEL! That's right, Lia and Peter are back! To be completely honest though, the first chapter will (most likely) not be up until June because I'm moving this month and stuff is CRAZY right now. I have not forgotten, though!

But right now, I need your help! I've come up with several potential titles for my newest creation and I can't decide which is best. Choose the one you like best, then comment and tell me! You can also suggest names of your own if you like. I'm looking for a single word title that's weather-related.

Without further adieu, here are my potential titles:

Aurora

Blizzard

Dawn

Dusk

Eclipse

Equinox

Flood

Frost

Hurricane

Lightning

Petrichor

Thunder

Tsunami

Yeah, I know, there are a lot of them. My sisters kept suggesting them and I kept liking them and now I can't choose! Hopefully, you guys can help me out. Also, I finally came up with a (decent) ship name! I chose SnowSpider because I could not for the life of me come up with anything good regarding their actual names.

Good luck! If you suggest your own title and I like it I'll mention your name in the first chapter!

-EllaoftheOpera

EDIT: I've created a poll on my profile to make things easier on y'all. Comment your unique names here. You can choose up to three names in the poll. Thanks again!


	17. UPDATE 2

Hey guys! Guess what?

The first chapter of Aurora, Downpour's sequel, is up right now!

Yes!

 ** _Right now!_**

What are you still doing here? Stop reading this update and head on over to read it!

-Ella ;)


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